of uh asking the first question uh and so that is the the vancouver queer film festival is entering its 38th year when you look at where queer cinema was when the festival began versus where it is now what feels like the biggest victory and what do you feel like is still unfinished Oh, that's a great question.

When I think about 38 years, I mean, when the first edition of the festival was literally bedsheets in a lesbian's living room, like that's where the films were projected.

So coming from like that informal community organized event to the what we are today, 87 films, big venues across the city.

We open and close in the Vancouver Playhouse.

I mean, that alone just goes to show how much incredible progress there has been.

When we started, queer people were not telling queer stories.

queer representation was very, very limited, you know, coming off the back of the Hays Code where, you know, queer people had to be villains or killed.

And so in, in, in this, uh, this project, you know, and, and this festival, how do you all and kind of go about selecting these, these creators that get to come and share their, their labor of love with everyone?