[WQ40] Reel Queer Stories: People Have the Power [2024-04-06]

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Reel Queer Stories
People Have the Power
Saturday, Apr 6 @ 12:00 pm
ArtsEmerson Paramount Center

WQ blurbed this as: "This collection of short documentary films highlights our histories, our current realities and our activism in our collective fight for a better future."

For some reason, the blurbs on the WQ site end with ellipses (though the full-text shows up when I copy-paste?), but the Emerson site had the full blurbs.  I prefer the formatting of the Emerson site, so that's what I'm using. 

My partner felt like the films got worse as they went along, which I'm inclined to agree with.

I think that they generally struggled with trying to do too much.

1. There Are Things To Do
Directed by Mike Syers
2023 | 18 MIN | USA | in English | Lesbian

Urvashi Vaid, an outspoken immigrant, lesbian and woman of color was an LGBTQ+ superhero helped shape the modern day gay rights movement. Her vision for the movement serves as a roadmap of initiatives & tools for generations of activist as they face anti-LGBTQ+ backlash. The film features Urvashi’s life in Provincetown, MA and 34-year relationship with partner Kate Clinton, and inspires us that the best place to build community & work towards equality starts at home.

I don't think I'd heard of Urvashi before, but I learned a bunch about her in this, and the film was consistently interesting.  We start with someone talking about how she protested the Vietnam War at age 11.  She was involved with the 1993 March on Washington.

The film covers a lot, and also takes care not to feel rushed (we, with Urvashi and Kate, relax in their homebase of Provincetown, MA -- where we also get concrete examples of Urvashi's locally-focused activism -- during the latter portion of the film), but looking back on it I would have liked more actionable takeaways (especially given the promise of the blurb).

2. House of Tulip
Directed by Cydney Tucker
2022 | 24 MIN | USA | in English | Trans

House of Tulip follows two Black trans activists as they run for office and work to build Louisiana’s first housing refuge that provides residency for trans and gender non-conforming residents. We’ll follow the founders as they fight to use their organization to protect and build community in a state with one of the highest gun-related murder rates in the country. Their journeys will highlight the dangerous yet beautiful reality of what it means to be Black trans women in the deep South.

This short opens with Mariah Moore -- who helped found House of Tulip and is running for City Council (District D, 2021).  Then we also get Milan -- who I think also helped found House of Tulip.  Their storylines have very different vibes (Milan's includes other youth who have been helped by House of Tulip, as well as a TDoR march; where Mariah's is more reflective and involves her run for City Council).  While there's a nice bit at the end that interweaves the two narratives, they largely felt disconnected to me and like I was watching two (or more) separate films.

I respect that Mariah's desire to run for City Council comes out of the same passion that drove her to help found House of Tulip -- but I think I maybe would have preferred a film that was just about House of Tulip (and possibly a separate film about her City Council run -- at the end of the film we learn, IIRC, that she raised the most money of the candidates in her district, which is the most conservative district in NOLA). One of my notes says, "housing really sets the stage for eliminating violence," and I would have loved more than just the glimpses we get of the services they offer, how they respond to community need, etc.

3. Ferro’s Bar
Directed by Aline A. Assis, Fernanda Elias, Nayla Guerra, Rita Quadros
2023 | 24 MIN | Brazil | in Portuguese with English Subtitles | Lesbian

Based on historical documents and interviews with lesbian who lived and fought in the 1970s and 1980s, during the military dictatorship, we are guided to a central episode in the formation of the Brazilian lesbian movement, the “Ferro’s Bar Uprising”, known as the “Brazilian Stonewall”. The film shows how lesbians stopped being restricted to the night, the inside of the apartments, and became a political subject that rises up against the censorship, repression and homophobic violence.

It was cool to learn about a Brazilian version of Stonewall (though this one is pretty solidly about lesbians). Having not reread the blurb before seeing the films live, I did not realize at the beginning that this was gonna be leading up to a Stonewall type action (I thought it was just a retrospective about a lesbian bar). I think the film probably could have been crafted a bit better to help orient me as the film went along.

4. Conte: Transitioning Politics
Directed by Daniel Leonard Bernardi
2023 | 24 MIN | USA | in English | Trans

In the face of intense political rivalry and relentless media scrutiny, this film chronicles the extraordinary journey of Joanne Conte, an Italian immigrant’s child who not only breaks barriers as the first elected transgender city council member in U.S. history but also fearlessly forges an enduring legacy as a soldier, activist, politician, and investigative journalist. Conte embodies a defiant spirit of resilience and unwavering commitment to public service.

The film is not as coherent as this blurb would suggest.  

( cut for length )

5. The Pride Liar
Directed by Andres Lübbert
2023 | 19 MIN | Belgium | in Dutch, English, Georgian | Queer

Emzo, a courageous queer activist, escaped persecution in Georgia five years ago, finding refuge in Belgium. This short documentary captures his unyielding commitment to the LGBTQ+ cause, showcasing the indomitable spirit of one individual’s fight for acceptance and equality.

I understand why this film dropped pieces of information throughout, but it meant I struggled to follow the actual timeline. There are also various protests throughout the film, which I think mainly (possibly all) happened in Belgium, but we weren't sure what language Emzo was speaking, and so we wondered who the audience of the protest was (e.g., if he was in Belgium but speaking Georgian, would the average passerby have understood him?).

I appreciated the inclusion of an activism film focusing outside the U.S., but...

[WQ40] The Queen of My Dreams [2024-04-06]

THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS
Saturday Apr 6 @ 6:30 pm
Brattle Theater

Pakistani Muslim Mariam and her Canadian-born daughter Azra come of age in two different eras against the backdrop of a shared obsession with Bollywood fantasy.

The WQ blurb says: "This at its center is a celebration of community that comes together against all odds to mourn the past, celebrate diversity and plan for the future." I think this overstates to some degree -- and sets you up to expect resolution sooner than happens -- but these elements do all show up in the film.

There was less queer content than I was expecting (given its presence in this film festival). Which is fine.

The narrative shifts between present-day 1999, 1969 Pakistan, and 1989 (the year Azra turns 12). It does a nice job of showing the generational shifts that happen (and how history repeats), and how various characters/relationships get to the strained place we first see them at (with people doing the best they know how).

The Canada parts take place in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and apparently were in fact shot on location there. One review says, "[writer-director Fawzia] Mirza, who grew up watching Bollywood movies as a young, queer Muslim in Cape Breton, N.S., says she didn't see herself in the film genre she loved."

I had not realized that the Bollywood film featured in the film is real (one review says of this film, "The title is a literal translation of “Meri Sapno Ki Rani,” the wildly popular Hindi song from 1969’s “Aradhana.” ")

[WQ40] I Will Be There Every Single Night [2024-04-08]

US PREMIERE
I WILL BE THERE EVERY SINGLE NIGHT
TODA NOITE ESTAREI LÁ
Monday Apr 8 @ 6:30 pm
Brattle Theater

Barred from attending her religious service, Mel does not give up professing her faith. Every night, she prepares posters and takes them to the church door, waiting for the day she will be able to walk inside again. Over the span of a far-right government and the hardships of an unforeseen pandemic, the documentary follows the transsexual hairdresser's struggle to assert her constitutional right to religious freedom. A poignant portrait of a character and a country in its far from ordinary complexities

This film is presented in Portuguese with English subtitles.

WQ: "In this Brazilian film, despite being barred from attending her religious service, Mel does not give up professing her faith. Every night, she prepares posters and takes them to the church door, waiting for the day she will be able to walk inside again. This documentary is a accurate testament to the agency and tenacity of the LGBTQ+ community."

I had somehow missed that it's a documentary when we were first picking movies, so I spent a lot of the movie being like, "The historical events happening around her are clearly real, but I think she's fictitious?"  (It takes place over about 2017-2020.)

She wants to attend a particular Assemblies of God church, and displays a kind of religiosity we don't usually see in trans people.  She's very a lot ("even for a trans girl," Abby said).

I appreciated that her lawyer seems totally on her side -- it doesn't feel like a battle of her against the world.

I appreciated that Mel wears pants sometimes.  I don't know what Brazilian culture is like -- and given her more conservative religious beliefs, I wouldn't have been at all surprised if she chose to present more stereotypically feminine all of the time.  But she's just a woman -- who happens to be barred from attending a particular church and is filing court cases because this violates her constitutional rights.

***

Presented with…

Flores del otro Patio
[director] Jorge Cadena • Colombia • Spanish • 15min

In the north of Colombia, a group of queer activists use extravagant performative actions to denounce the disastrous exploitation by the country’s largest coal mine.

The costuming here is really cool.

There was definitely a scene where I was a little unsure how much people were using actual magic versus just performing -- which I think was intentional; the filming of the performative actions purposely pull the viewer out of the realm of the realistic to a degree.

[WQ40] Peafowl [2024-04-13]

PEAFOWL
Saturday Apr 13 @ 7:30 pm
ArtsEmerson Paramount Center

Myung is a transgender [woman] who cut ties with her family and hometown because of who she is. Now, all she needs is the surgery but the only way to earn money, by winning the Waacking dance competition, didn’t go well. One day, she receives a call that her father passed away and Myung finds out that her father left a will that he will give her the legacy if she performs Drum Dance during his 49th memorial ritual. With no choice left, Myung goes back to her hometown to perform according to her father’s will.

This film is presented in Korean with English subtitles.

(idk why the blurb just says "a transgender")

WQ says: "This Korean film explores queerness in many ways, but one of the coolest ways is how Myung, our trans lead, explores her queerness with dance, specifically waack. Also this film has a story line about queer elders being there for the next generation and that always gets us teary eyed."

The lead actress is IRL a trans woman waack dancer (whose film debut was in this writer-director's 2020 short film "God's Daughter Dances").

About a week before this film, I saw a Tumblr post about literal peafowl that are arguably FTM ("Because this transition only occurs when the hen’s working ovary (they only have 1, the left one) stops working (or fails to start), thus ceasing production of the hormones which suppress male plumage, they are not fertile. They also do not change sex organs, just their plumage.") or intersex ("These peafowl grow in and retain sex characteristics of both hens and cocks, for their entire lives. They do not lay eggs or court, the way the other sexes do. Unlike a hen in henopause, they do not transition into or out of this state- they are born to it and remain in it their entire lives.")

Alas, this did not come up in the film.  Though I did read a review that said, "[Writer-director] Byun [Sung-bin] has previously stated that the title Peafowl was deliberately chosen over the term Peacock or Peahen. The gender-neutral term describes the story’s fierce heroine perfectly, as she has no need to fit into the boxes that society tries to put her in."

There are a couple moments where Myung basically says, "I just wanna be how I am -- and calling myself a 'woman' is what makes that make the most sense to other people."

Myung is hella high femme in pretty much every outfit (complete with killer eye makeup, etc.) -- but she also goes for runs in pretty standard athletic wear and light makeup (possibly the movie version of "no makeup," since she submerges her face in water one time). This is the second film in the festival where I've made this sort of note, and I appreciate that we're at a place where trans women get to just be women.

I went to this film on my own because Abby didn't wanna deal with the transphobia/misgendering aspect (Myung's family refuses to acknowledge that she's a woman).  There was less of that than I was maybe expecting?  Which I say not as a criticism of my partner's choices, just as an informational note.  (There's also some bonus homophobia, fyi.) It's very much a driving force behind a lot of the plot stuff (and also a very present background for some of our characters), but in most of the moment-to-moment, Myung's focus gets to be on other things.

I wasn't entirely sold on some of Myung's character arc (it's maybe a little rushed?), but I overall enjoyed the film.