Teenage Beldina Odenyo's face fills the screen. "I suppose if anything ever happens to me,” she says, “it would be good if somebody found this and basically understood how I was feeling." Watching the opening of the feature film Bel, I felt like a witness to a prophecy: Odenyo ended her life just as her star was about to shoot.

Despite relentless internet discourse on the necessity of sex scenes, kink is making a comeback in film – and I love to see it. As a queer creative, it excites me that filmmakers are taking risks with increased representations of ‘taboo’ sexuality.

Takashi Miike's Visitor Q depicts the maximum level of breakdown in a family. This (very) dark comedy opens on a home video sex scene between father and daughter in a seedy motel, progressing through scenes of profound dysfunction as a mysterious visitor (Kazushi Watanabe) comes to stay with the family.

Theophina Gabriel responds to Alexandrina Hemsley’s Fountain, where a trio of dancers explore tidal cycles of repair, loss, joy and intimacy, expressed through movement and digital imagery.

Xandra Sunglim Burns responds to The Perfect Knight, a film by Stephané Alexandre that shows romance may come when you are least expecting it.

Shivanee Ramlochan discusses Michelle Mohabeer’s Coconut/Cane & Cutlass, a mythic/poetic rumination on exile, displacement, and nationhood from the perspective of an Indo-Caribbean lesbian who migrated to Canada twenty years ago.

Shirine Shah responds to Flesh and Paper (1990), a lyrical exploration of the sense and sensibilities of Indian lesbian poet and writer, Suniti Namjoshi, directed by Pratibha Parmar.

Eilidh Akilade

Her hands bloom outwards again and again. Another’s hands clasp mid-air before sinking to the right, sweetly. One hand – of another, still – holds their fingers tightly and then suddenly detaches, spinning out in circles. And the left hand of another comes under the right and it is held, supported, by that which is its sistren, its brethren. It relaxes before springing upwards, fingertips splaying, signally a new thought for Maud Sulter and for us all.

Memuna Konteh

Michael Jenkins’s short film, Pickney, is a haunting yet uplifting story about the unifying power of grief and the complexities of mixed-race identity. It follows teenager Leon, a mixed-race Bristolian with few ties to his Caribbean heritage outside of a close relationship with his nan, Pam, the mother of his estranged father, David.

Georgina Quach

Still We Thrive, written and directed by Campbell X, ensures we never look away from the past. It brings together contemporary Black actors speaking to camera with archive footage of Black history from the Caribbean, United Kingdom, United States and the African continent. As poet Elizabeth Alexander said, for so long, communities of colour have had to “carry around knowledge and stories in our bodies,” because resources were not devoted to preserving the spaces that held those stories and culture.

Theophina Gabriel responds to GRIN by Mele Broomes, a digital fruition of performance, sound, visuals and choreography, subverting hyper-sexualised notions of African and Caribbean dance.