Kirkcaldy's Hive LGBT+ to hold inaugural film festival

The Hive, based in Whytescauseway in the town centre, will host their first film festival this weekend (March 10-12), thanks to funding from the National Lottery’s Award for All programme.

The completely free event has been organised by Pink Saltire and is open to all members and allies of the community.

The festival will be produced by Jaxon McCallum (26) who hopes it will allow those attending to reflect on the journey the community and society have gone through.

He explained: “Film lets us explore so many emotions, often with our loved ones or friends, and there are loads of amazing films with LGBT+ representation out there to choose from.

“After what's been a really difficult and isolating few years due to Covid and now the cost of living crisis, we wanted this first festival to be as inclusive as possible and to make us think about love, being together, happiness and joy.

“But it's also important to reflect on how far we've come as a society and on some of the challenges our community continues to face here in the UK and around the world."

The three-day festival will show a range of films, starting on Friday 10 March at 1.00pm with 2020’s And Then We Danced. Friday continues with Are You Proud at 3.30pm and then British gay romance God’s Own Country at 6.00pm.

Saturday starts at 1.00pm with a screening of Hairspray before continuing the musical theme with the ABBA inspired Mamma Mia at 3.30pm and then Cabaret at 6.00pm

The festival finishes on Sunday with documentaries focusing on identity, sexuality and bullying. Olly Alexander’s Growing Up Gay airs at 1.00pm, before Lily: A Transgender Story at 3.30pm. The festival closes with Tom Daley’s Illegal To Be Me at 6.00pm.

The weekend will also see an airing of short films made in Scotland.

Jaxon highlighted festivals in the Borders, Dumfries & Galloway and Glasgow’s Scottish Queer International Film Festival as a future benchmark for the festival.

He said: "If we are anywhere near as successful as those events in a few years we'd be very happy - they've been a real inspiration for us."