A couple weeks back I attended a movie screening by QWOCMAP/Asian & Pacific Islander Cultural Center. It was a couple of shorts may be lasting to an hour or so portraying introductory or repeated attempts by Queer Women. These are my comments about the shorts and to make this a little interesting I am rating them here (ranging from * to *****) .
Disclaimer: It might look like there is a bias towards South Asians – this being not intentional but rather because they bring a sense of commonness and familiarity that I felt personally. Otherwise, the bias is purely coincidental.
So we go…
A Letter Home (Shahrzad M. Davis)
A story about a letter from a Queer women of Iranian descent to her mom. I believe it was about she writing a letter apologizing to her estranged late mom. I couldn’t get why she was apologizing which of course I did not figure out until she spoke about it during the Q&A session.
I found it surprising to hear Shahrzad mention that this was screened during a L.A. Iranian American festival recently. Quite surprising indeed , isn’t it? given the conservativeness of the culture.
Rating: ***
Homeschool (So Yung Kim)
An Asian girl’s perspective on homeschooling. Sorry, but I did not get any past the fact that the girl was being homeschooled and it felt to me she was conflicted having had to learn English and Korean at the same time. I find this to be pretty common across all diasporas in a non-native land.
Rating: **
A Genealogy of Dreams (Champika Fernando)
This was a beautiful movie with a touch of humor that lasted way past the movie. Champika is of Sri Lankan origin and she spoke about the sacrifices her parents, particularly her dad made during their move to the US and past that. The narration was quite impressive.
Rating: ****
Passports, Love & Disco (Marlene Legaspi)
This was an amazing story and was enjoyable to the bit. It was about Marlene’s gay brother and his growing up in the SF during the disco era. It was funny yet with an emotional side of things about their Filipino family.
Rating: ****
The Wink & The Pucker (Ami Puri)
This movie was about a young trans woman’s struggle of yearning to touch her true feminine side, yet being made to live as a boy. This was some familiar ground to say the least.
Rating: ****
On My Way (Emily Encina)
A story about a women getting her bike fixed. Sorry, did not quite get it.
Rating: *
Mr. & Mrs. Singh (Punam S.)
This was a funny take about Indian marriages with the protagonists leading hidden lives. This was a take on a very popular movie and it was funny. I laughed out loud, and could see through the ending a little earlier than expected. May be because I read about it berore I watched it. duh!! A great first attempt!
Rating: ****
Punam mentioned about this having been screened at the Bombay festival. Did anyone else watch this movie? What’s your take?
What to do after the break-up … with the s#x t@ys (Lili Tom)
This was hilllllll-arious. A great movie, rather a documentary about people’s reactions to the usage of sex toys after a breakup. I was literally rolling in laughter. What a great ending to the evening.
Rating: *****
It was nice to watch these movies and they did not have the sterotypical popular portrayal. It was also nice to watch the directors deal with a variety of subjects than just about coming out. i felt them to be more “straight from the heart” stories about the humor, difficulties, struggles, despair, hope … And, they definitely had a slight Queer touch to them.
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They all sound so great. Any idea if any or all of them are available to watch on DVD?
Thanks for the reviews, Rashmi.