Opening with a video-recorded confession from Polly, a secretary, this comedy tells of her voyeuristic fascination for her new boss, the ambitious Gabrielle, owner of an art gallery. The two women are like night and day – the new temp is absent-minded and innocent beyond her years with spiky orange hair and the curator bourgeois, polished and with a gift for gab – yet a strong connection builds through their shared love of art, curiosity and appetite for love. Directed by Patricia Rozema (Mouthpiece, 2018), a significant player in the Toronto New Wave, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing is a playful, humorous and complex look at the many different kinds of desire and admiration between women.

+ short film WAVELENGTHS by Pratibha Parmar (UK 1997, 15’)

Left with a broken heart and an empty goldfish tank, Mona searches for love and human intimacy via gay bars and cyberspace.

Screening as part of Queerious, exploring a multitude of desires on screen in ways we all too rarely see in cinema. Queerious is part of Film Feels Curious, a UK-wide cinema season, supported by the National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network. Explore all films and events at filmfeels.co.uk.