A BORDERS film festival, the second of its kind in the whole of Scotland, is set to return this weekend.

Queer Borders, an LGBTQ+ film festival organised by Borders LGBT Equality, is one of only two queer film festival sin Scotland, joined by SQIFF (Scottish Queer International Film Festival.

Queer Borders aims to celebrate the "lives, loves, struggles and achievements of LGBT people here and around the world".

Susan Hart, a trustee of Queer Borders, told the Border Telegraph: "The festival has two focuses.

"One is about having the same viewing opportunities as people living in the central belt – we don't see why because we're rural that we shouldn't have those [viewing] opportunities."

She added: "Plus, I think it's more important for us because living here, there's nowhere LGBT-specific.

"So, one is about bringing the screening opportunity and having a festival that's just ours, specific to us, and the other focus is about giving us that one opportunity a year for us all to have a safe space to come to.

"So you hope that all of the LGBT people that come, and their friends, we can all meet each other."

The festival highlights a great number of feature and short films about the experiences of LGBTQ+ people.

The festival will begin with a screening of Desert Hearts (1985), hailed as a groundbreaking creation and one of the first widely released films to portray lesbian sexuality in a positive way.

The afternoon portion of the festival will kick off with the youth section's choice of Dawn of Man (2021) – a 26-minute-long short – and the feature film Sweetheart (2021).

The youth section is formed of the LGBT Youth Scotland Involved Borders group.

Theo Seddon, the creator of Dawn of Man, will hold a Q&A session with members of the youth section.

Also on Saturday afternoon will be the shorts programme at Unit 4, The Cornucopia Room.

Presented by Leah Francisco, a deaf and queer filmmaker, whose short film What's Wrong With Her? was screened at the Queer Borders Film Festival last year, the shorts programme will feature films by other deaf creators, shining a light on an often under-represented group in the LGBTQ+ community.

Eight films will be shown in the shorts programme, and a Q&A sessions with some of the filmmakers will be held afterwards.

All of the short films will have subtitles and a BSL (British Sign Language) interpreter will be present for the Q&A session.

In the evening the festival will closed with the short, Queer@Cannes (2020), which will be followed by the feature film Firebird (2021).

A recorded Q&A with director David Mark Farrington (Queer@Cannes) will be shown after the feature film.

Throughout the day Moving Images, a mobile cinema in a restored caravan, will be running screenings of Oor Pride: The History of Scottish Pride (2021) every half hour from 12-6pm.

Feature films, and the shorts which precede them, will be screened at the Heart of Hawick.

Tickets are available for each of the features and their shorts at: uk.patronbase.com/_HeartOfHawick/Productions or on the door.

For the shorts programme, tickets can be bought at the door on the day or at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/queer-borders-film-festival-short-films-tickets-404754841627

All tickets are available as 'pay what you can' – ranging from £3-7 per screening.

Subsidised tickets can be discussed with organisers by contacting them via Facebook or by emailing lgbtborders@gmail.com

For more information, including full festival schedule and programme details, visit the Scottish Borders LGBT Equality Facebook page.