Welcome to Rainbow Reel Tokyo!

We were known as Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, however we have restarted with the new name Rainbow Reel Tokyo from this year onward. The previous name Lesbian & Gay brought awareness to these communities, however during the past 25 years more and more people have become aware of sexualities beyond lesbian and gay, and that people in these communities have a life of their own. We discussed extensively whether to change our name or not, and on this 25th anniversary milestone, we decided to take a step in a new direction with our new name.

Sexuality is a gradation with dozen of colors. Each color of the rainbow has different meanings, and a rainbow is also the symbol of diversity. A reel is a roll of film. Recently we do not see them as often as before since movies are digitalized, but it symbolizes the word ‘movie’ which represents dreams, hope and even despair. We would love to share the diversity of sexuality through movies with people in Japan. Rainbow Reel: such a fabulous name isn’t it? We will create and promote our movie festival so people can embrace, feel and think about their sexuality. We hope that you enjoy this movie festival together with us.

Hideki Miyazawa
Committee Director, Rainbow Reel Tokyo