I used to think – as I looked out on the Hollywood night — that there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest. Marilyn Monroe.

I’m made of dreams. That’s why I want to start with this quote from one of my favourite actresses. I’m made of dreams, a love of art and hard work. I don’t think that I’m special – I believe I have to fight for what I want – but as a student of New Media and Film and Visual Arts, (and a future actress), I think that visual arts and acting are powerful means to influence people and to demonstrate our flaws and virtues.

That’s why I wanted to tell you about the gay film season at ForumImages. It started on 17 February and continues until 5 May.

The use of the label ‘gay’ to define the theme of a movie bothers me. It seems more like a warning about its homosexual content. However, the gay film season at ForumImages is a great opportunity to hear stories that are far from clichés. It shows what some people have to fight every day to be able to love without being judged. That’s important, because in the 21st century many young people still believe that loving someone of their own sex is wrong. Seven countries still have the death penalty for homosexuality.

The films that are being shown at ForumImages portray stories from different places around the world, where homosexuals encounter obstacles among their family, friends and, most of all, society.

My favourite, ‘I am gay and Muslim’, on the 14th of April is a Moroccan-Dutch documentary with testimonies from Muslims who have accepted their homosexuality but have to deal with lots of obstacles. Some of them didn’t even want to be filmed. The heartbreaking stories have some happy endings, but also some sad ones.

The gay film season is not only artistic, but also educational and informative about broken lives that are hardly noticed. As John Grierson would say, a movie is so expensive that it has to be more than entertainment. I agree with Grierson in the sense that the end product should also be educational. We believe we are superior beings, but regarding this subject, we still have a long way to go.

Dogs never bite me. Just humans. Marilyn Monroe