One hour forty-five minutes before the government grant...

At the time of writing, the first ever grant for the festival, given by the Paris town council, looms large, but has still not be voted. Ever optimistic, we consider it's in the bag. It's a great step forward: until now, our insistence that the festival remain women-only seemed to be an insurmountable obstacle to recognition, be it official or officious, whether in the straight world or in the not-so-straight world.

Without renouncing our independence and our wish to prove our existence solely by existing, we are delighted to receive this official recognition, to be legitimate for once. It means we can afford to put a bit more spice in the life of our festival. Just as gay men don't have to give up anything to earn the right to meet in venues and clubs reserved for them alone (100% boyz as they say), we reckon that we lesbians, with our own particular libido and priorities, deserve our space too.

The festival remains fiercely independent. It can carry on without external subsidies, but only just. We have a fall back strategy, our commendable self-sufficiency, but it clips our wings, and shrinks us down to less than our full size. For two years now, small debts incurred along the way have forced us to make penny pinching economies; too great a lack of means puts our very existence at risk. This local government grant woud help us to meet the costs of the auditoriums for the screenings: Paris has no venues that it can lend (as opposed to rent out) for cultural events.

The organizing team, through self-adopted philosophy and financial necessity, remains completely volunteer. We're talking about dozens and dozens of women here, who work together and who have taken over from one another over the past fifteen years. It's something of a miracle: there is no hierarchy, no spokeswoman, and typically only scorn for us in press. Well, too bad! All that matters is that there are lots of us, and that we can get together for this event once a year, every year, to see each other and ourselves in the auditoriums and on the big screen.

And so this year, we affirm our presence in the magnificent Trianon, with a second auditorium in la Halle Saint-Pierre for debates and additional screenings. Having access to these venues is another miracle, because even with the grant, it is virtually impossible to find a space big enough given our limited budget (and, of course, our seriously threatening sexual habits).

What a wonderful fifteenth year. Wonderful for us as organizers. Wonderful for those of you who come every year. Wonderful for those of you who are here for the first time. Thanks lesbians! Thanks women film-makers, so beautiful and so good! Thanks Paris! We're here, and we're here to stay.

Program 2003

15 years of lesbian and feminist films...

The festival in figures: 15 years old, 2 screens in the heart of Gay Paree, 1 debating/meeting/screening room nearby, plus the Folie's Pigalle (also nearby) for our 15th birthday bash!!!

80 films from 19 different countries; 9 scheduled chances to meet the filmmakers, and plenty of impromptu ones, too! 17 artists' works on view and 1 great women's band, by the name of Anatomie Bousculaire, to open the festivities, followed by Do I Love You? (by Lisa Gornick), the first feature-length, non-documentary lesbian film from GB in over 10 years! And it's just one of the six feature-length fictions this year.

The Edge of Each Other's Battles: The Vision of Audre Lorde

Loads of women to learn about, read, listen to or remember, on screen or in the flesh, from African American lesbian-feminist poet-fighter Audre Lorde, a stylised Petra von Kant in The Politics of Fur, one savvy Savoy princess in Née sous absence, Albanian "virgins", South African activists, Monique Wittig and her guerrillères, the legendary Elula Perrin, French feminists, Radical Harmonies, an Australian PWA, 2 German-Jewish lesbian grandmothers and dykes marching all over the world!

10 rules to Korean lesbian survival, Dayna Mc Leod's return with a less ironic, more sexually realistic take on Womyn's Studies. History Lessons, and sex lies and videotape about everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask (from dildos to mermaids and back!)!

Three little girls' questions about why their uncle is turning into their aunt, plus poetry, performance art and personal stories from girls who were born boys, vice versa or in between the 2... will lead us to a debate about the relationship between the trans and lesbian movements.

From Hollywood: 5 lesbians live in The Complex, 4 teen 007's are D.E.B.S., Zoey will go to great lengths for One Kiss, and more... From all over, kids with 2 mums; teens, parents and coming out are the stuff of You 2, Peeling, Blow, and Lesbian Love Bites...

Documentaries from Trinidad, the USA, Nepal, East Timor and more... And the first-ever lesbian feature from China. Plus 2 women, 4 cats and 6 months in Salt the Blade, and Crevetten describes the moving connection between a 19-year-old nurse, Luce, and her 93-year-old patient, Rosa. And let's not forget Girl King, the one-of-a-kind story of a very special pirate queen...