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 Prathiba Parmar

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

With an introduction from Birds Eye View’s Rui Jun.

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.