Since I have two readings to finish for my Monday lectures, I’m digging out something from my October journal archives. See ya next week!
Image: Ana’s ex, a brown-haired transwoman with red lipstick and a thin gold necklace, faces the camera, looking worried, but not quite upset. Their tomato-red dress stands out against maroon, pink, yellow flowers and cascading green leaves.
After my very forgettable JNU entrance exam, I snuck into the virtual 14th Iris Prize LGBT+ Film Festival (free for viewers in the UK) with the help of a VPN free trial.
The first film I watched was ‘We Need to Talk about the Ring’. Now that same-sex marriage is legal in Taiwan, Xin moves back home, proposes to her long-time girlfriend Yu and tries to navigate her mother’s fear and her father’s simmering anger. The parents discover that Xin intends to marry Yu, they argue about it for 25 minutes, and then surprise, they have a change of heart. Magically they transform into a loving, accepting family, and credits roll.
That’s the dream isn’t it? You can’t hope for immediate, unquestioning acceptance (because homophobia runs that deep), but surely, with a good cry and a few tender words, hearts will melt and love will shine through. How unrealistic. 5/10.
Then I saw ‘Victoria’, a cute little Spanish film directed by Daniel Toledo Saura. It’s an argument, or a conversation, between Ana and her ex (a florist and a trans-woman). Ana is fully supportive, but she still worries about what people will think about her ex, and she’s a little resentful? upset? because everything about the lives they lived together feels like a lie. The film ends with the Ana’s gift, seeds of Victoria Amazónica, a remarkable flower that changes sex. And even if it’s a little gimmicky, it is a great ending.
Great dialogue, nuanced emotions. 10/10. Also, I loved the fluidity of the sentences in Spanish, especially when they’re arguing.
Between you and me, ‘The Way We Are’ was a little boring—it felt like someone was telling me the story of my life, very familiar fears, familiar worries, familiar joys. Tamai Kobayashi, Wenda Li, Katherine Chun & Nancy Seto (Asian Lesbians of Toronto) narrate events from their lives, bits and pieces—looking up homosexual in the encyclopedia, falling in love with a roommate—against old pictures and home-videos of little girls growing up. 7/10.
These quotes stuck with me:
Katherine said, “I find myself thinking, you can’t have family and true love if you’re Asian and gay.”
Tamai said, “I think it’s important to say your piece to a world that is homophobic, racist, ableist, to say that’s wrong, because the world will fuck you up. The world will make you hate yourself if you’re different, and it’s about taking a stand, not only for yourself but, oh my god, for the people you love. Everyone knows it doesn’t have to be this fucking hard.”
She adds, “We have a lot of stories to tell without censorship…when we talk to each other, sometimes we talk to ourselves. And we have to hear that echo from another, that response from another person who’s had that same kind of experience…”
‘Selma After the Rain’ tells of a middle-aged trans-woman and her mother, an ageing woman struggling with early-stage dementia. After the rain (specifically after Selma dances in the rain and gets all wet), the mother accepts Selma as she is (of course), and does her hair, and conspiratorially says, we won’t say anything to your father. I should be happy about this trope, but I simply can’t believe in these feel-good stories. It is impossible. These stories are lies*. 7/10.
WOW. Just wow. I almost didn’t watch ‘Thrive’. I was four films in and ready to quit. I’m so glad I watched it anyway. It simply blew me away.
After they have sex (I’m assuming it was great, they certainly looked like they enjoyed it), Alex (the one who wants a relationship) and Joe (the one who just wanted a hookup) dress for the day and Alex mentions that he noticed Joe’s meds. His HIV meds.
Joe admits that he’s positive but it’s not contagious. He’s known for about a month. Alex tells him that he’s got exactly the same thing, only he’s lived with it for eleven years. They talk a little. Alex says they should stop calling it HIV, because that forces you to carry the whole heavy history with it. It’s a completely different disease now, he tells Joe, one that you can manage with a little daily pill.
It ends exactly as you might expect—Joe watches Alex leave, cries and then throws on a shirt and runs after him to accept his invitation to a breakfast date. It’s cute. 12/10. (If you want to find the film, it was written and directed by Jamie di Spirito)
I think my favourite films were Victoria and Thrive. They’ve got great dialogue, and most importantly, they weren’t about coming out.
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*Needlessly dramatic maybe, but am I wrong?
Image: Victoria directed by Daniel Toledo Saura
All the best for navigating through the readings and thank you for still posting such a wonderful piece. As long as it's yours and does not need revision, time really does not matter right now.
Your post reminds me of Akhil Katyal and how there has been a sort of fetishization of the act(if I may call so) of coming out. I think as your last line carefully warns us to not stay restricted, limited or reduce queer fantasy,fiction or work to just coming out. Definitely coming out is a transgression and a revolutionary act in itself. But there are a host of other emotions,situations, conditions connected with this identity or non binary culture. I mean coming out can easily be captured and co-opted as representing everything about queer identity if I may call it so.
On another note, I am excited to go and watch these movies.
Thanks for putting it out so well! Best Wishes