AST PRESENTS KDY PRIDE DOUBLE BILL

A curated collection of extraordinary short films that have been honoured and celebrated at the 2023 Iris Prize Film Festival. Established in 2006, the Iris Prize is a film and media organisation committed to increasing audiences for LGBTQ+ stories. Hosting an annual festival in October in Cardiff, it boasts the largest short film prize in the world, a coveted £30,000 award.

In 1984, 20-year-old closet gay Joe hesitantly arrives in London from Bromley for his first Gay Pride march and is taken under the collective wing of a group of gay men and Lesbian Steph, who meet at the Soho bookshop of flamboyant Jonathan and his Welsh partner Gethin. Not only are gays being threatened by Thatcher, but also the miners are on strike in response to her pit closures, and Northern Irish activist Mark Ashton believes that gays and miners should show solidarity. Almost by accident, a minibus-load of gays find themselves in the Welsh village of Onllwyn in the Dulais valley, and through their sincere fundraising and Jonathan’s nifty disco moves persuade most of the community that they are on the same side. When a bigot tries to sabotage the partnership with a tabloid smear Mark turns it back on her with a hugely-successful benefit concert to which most of the villagers, now thoroughly in tune with their gay friends, turn up. The miners are defeated and return to work, but at the Pride march the following year a vast contingent of miners show up to repay their comrades with their show of support.