QA Films

MONDAY 11/16
NE'UE PRESENTS... "Two Spirits"

TUESDAY 11/17
BRIDGE PRESENTS... "The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros" (2005)

Director: Auraeus Solito

Can a 12-year old lad who wishes he were a girl navigate the mean streets of Manila? Maxi cooks, cleans, and sews for his father and older brothers who are petty criminals. He's sweet, clever and hardworking, at ease with being gay, pinning a flower in his hair, swinging his hips when he walks, vamping with friends. He's seen adults hug and kiss and he's watched romantic movies, so on the verge of puberty, he develops a crush on Victor, a kindly young cop. Maxi's heart and loyalties are on a collision course: Victor is investigating crimes that lead him to Maxi's family. In the land of the morning, is there a place for this child of the sun returning?


WEDNESDAY 11/18
A.C.E. PRESENTS... "Tongues Untied"

Tongues Untied is a semi-documentary film that was created in 1989. The film attempts to depict the Black Queer experience with a combination of documentary footage as well as personal accounts and fiction. A major focus of the film is silence. The silence that the film refers to is the struggle of Black Queer men expressing themselves in a white and black heterosexual society. The film also addressed the issues of being Queer in the Black community, and Black in the Queer community. Although Tongues Untied was considered controversial and provocative during the time of its initial release, its unusual style was meant to send a powerful message to its audience and it still remains a very influential film today.


THURSDAY 11/19
YIK'AL KUYUM PRESENTS ... "Princesa" (2001)

Director: Henrique Goldman

"Princesa" traces the journey of teenage transsexual Fernanda (Ingrid de Souza) as she heads from her native Brazil to the seedy world of Italy's transsexual prostitution scene, hoping to have a sex-change operation and find love. But just as it seems her dreams will come true, Fernanda discovers that what she left behind might be more fulfilling that what she thought she always wanted.


FRIDAY 11/20
S.A.F.E. PRESENTS... "A Beautiful Boxer"

"An ex-Thai kickboxer recounts her life to a reporter from her impoverished youth from taking on kickboxing to support her family to her time as a nationally recognized kickboxing star. Especially in a sport where bodies are under strict scrutiny, she never felt quite comfortable in her own body...because she is biologically male. This film goes through her struggles against intolerance towards her transgender identity in a space not necessarily providing a helpful framework of discourse to deal with the disrespect she encounters. A barrier-breaking film since non-heteronormative sexualities are rarely discussed in the Southeast Asian community."