Lots of people helped to make this page more comprehensive. Acknowledgements are at the bottom of this page. However, since I started keeping track of them September 10, 1995, I've left lots of them out. Please let me know who you are!
Some of these films are on this list because of their queer and A/P content. Others of the films are on the list because they are directed by queer and A/P directors. For more info, read the descriptions.
Also, people have been asking where they can obtain these films. Some suggested distributors are listed below.
37 Stories about Leaving Home
1996, US, 52 minutes, 3/4" Video
Shelly Silver, Director
Andaz
1949 Mehboob
2 dykes sing of Khush love.
Ang Tatay kong Nanay
Lino Brocka, Director
Anxiety of Inexpression & the Otherness Machine
Quentin Lee, Director
1992, 53 minutes, Gay.
Twenty-something director Lee turns his camcorder on himself
in this pastiche of genres as he moves among friends, family,
and especially in brazen repose with his lover.
Asian Studs Nightmare
Kip Fulbeck, Director
1994: Video, 6 minutes., black & white
Kip Fulbeck attacks the racial politics operating behind the hit
television dating show "STUDS". Narrated at breakneck speed over
multi-layered visuals of actual "STUDS" show and Asian male media
stereotypes, this video reveals pervasive racial hierarchies and
taboos depicted in mass media.
Athletics #3
Wada Junko, director
1995, Japan, 8mm, 8 minutes.
Beautiful Mystery
Gay porn film based loosely on the life of Yukio Mishima
Blending Milk with Water
Director: Paul Wong
28 minuntes
Stylish and seamless documentary on the Chinese and sex. Exploring this
taboo issue through intimate and unguarded interviews with fast paced
editing. A project of Asian Society for the Intervention of AIDS
(ASIA). Trilingual in Cantonese, Mandarin and English with subtitles.
World premiere at the XI International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver,
July 10th, 7pm and 9:30pm at Video In, 1965 Main Street. Video:
colour, stereo, VHS-NTSC. For more information and to order copies,
contact ASIA at asia@mindlink.bc.ca.
Bolo Bolo
Producers: Gita Saxen and Ian Rashid, in conjunction with the
Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention and Toronto Living With
AIDS
1991, 30 MINUTES
Focusing on the South Asian community of Toronto, this video is a
constructuve tool for facilitators, educators, community workers
and anyone interested in organizing around issues of health,
sexuality, and cultural identity.
The Buddha of Suburbia
Roger Michell, Director
1993, 236 minutes, Bisexual.
From the creator of _My Beautiful Laundrette_(Hanif Kureishi)
comes this captivating look at an Indian-British family living
in the London suburbs during the seventies. Although centering
around Karim, a sexually ambivalent adolescent finding his place
in the world, the eponymous "Buddha" is Karim's father, Haroon,
who, though really a Moslem, becomes all the rage as a faux-Buddhist
guru to a group of aging English hippies, a process that tears his
family apart. Meanwhile, Karim's childhood friend Jamilla struggles
against the pressure to marry from her hunger-striking father, Anwar,
and Karim's schoolmate (and soon-to-be stepbrother) embarks on a rock
and roll career. Kureishi captures the effervescence of free-
wheeling post-sixties London in much the same way that Armistead
Maupin did for San Francisco during roughly the same period
in his _Tales of the Cities_ series. (from Boston MFA blurb)
Bugis Street
Yeung Fan, Director
1994, Singapore
100 minutes
A young Malaysian girl experiences the painful process of
girl-to-woman transformation in a world full of unexpected
changes and sexual ambiguities. Set in Singapore's transvestite
district and starring Hong Kong model Michael Lam and Hiep Thi
Le. (from San Jose film description.)
Chocolate Babies
Stephen Winter, Director
1996, USA
16mm, 83 minutes
Told with rule breaking panache CHOCOLATE BABIES is
the story of a gang of raging outcast HIV-positive,
African-American and Asian drag queens, women and
queers who band together to terrorise conservative
politicians who are blocking legislation which will free up
finances to expand HIV/AIDS research and health care.
The gang's alliance is threatened by its youngest member,
while working undercover, finds himself seduced by the
closeted homosexual politician who is leading the fight
against them. The director creates a fantasy world of bawdy humor,
fervent drama and astonishing hairstyles without losing the
harshness of today's real life situation.
The Colour of Britain
Pratibha Parmar, Director
A documentary look at contemporary "black" (Asian and African) artists
and cultural ciritcs who are at the forefront of redefining British
culture.
Coming Out, Coming Home: Asian and Pacific Islander Family Stories
Hima B, Director
30 minutes, in English
_The_ API-PFLAG video! It features 4 families talking about
their processes of coming back together after someone came out as
lesbian or gay.
Coming Out Under Fire
Arthur Dong, Director
1994, 71 minutes, Gay/Lesbian.
Gays and lesbians who served in the U.S. Armed Forces during
World War II talk about their experiences.
Crossing with the Light
Dwight Okita
Poetry video made by third generation gay Japanese American poet and
playwright Dwight Okita.
Cut Sleeve
N. A. Diaman, Director
1992, 24 minutes, GLBO.
Kitty Tsui and other local interviewees speak about the
experience of being gay and Asian.
Destiny/Desire/Devotion
Zaid Dar, Director
A look at a mother's inner conflicts regarding her son's sexuality.
Dream Girls
Longinotto and Williams, Directors
1993 UK 50 mins
(Takarazuka, male impersonaters in japan, not explicitly lesbian
but one can read into it!)
Available from:
462 BROADWAY, 5TH FLOOR
NEW YORK, NY 10013
TEL:1-212-925-0606
Double the Trouble, Twice the Fun
Pratibha Parmar, director
(disabled lesbians and gays in UK, not sure if it has lesbians
of colour, but am including films by Parmar as she's one of few
lesbians of colour filmmakers)
The East is Red
Ching Siu-tung and Raymond Lee, Directors
1993, Hong Kong, 95 minutes, Transsexual, Martial
Arts/Fantasy,
A warrior wizard who gave up his penis to become Asia the Invincible
is the world's first transsexual lesbian superhero(ine). Asia is
out to rid the world of pretenders to her title of conqueror of the
world in a visual extravaganza of bloody violence, sex, and special
effects. In Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles.
East Palace / West Palace
Zhang Yuan, director
1996, China.
Erotique
Lizzie Borden, Monika Treut, and Clara Law, Directors
1994, 90 minutes, Lesbian/Bisexual, Comedy/Drama.
A trio of films showcasing feminist erotica. Lizzie Borden's
"Let's Talk About Sex" (co-written by Susie Bright) follows
the erotic entanglement of a spunky, bisexual Latina phone-sex
worker and her sleazy male client. Monika Treut's "Taboo
Parlor" is the stylish adventure of a pair of lusciously
predatory, lipstick lesbians. Clara Law's "Wonton Soup"
puts us in Hong Kong, where we look in on a straight couple's
erotic encounters and reflections on Chinese identity.
Eunuchs: India's Third Gender
Michael Yorke, Director
1991, UK, 40 minutes, Gay.
A made-for-BBC look at some of the more than half a million
eunuchs -- or hijiras -- in India today. This film captures the
pleasures and contradictions of a living alternative to Western
ideas about gender.
Facifica Falayfay
Dolphy, Director
1979
Stereotypical portrayal of a drag queen ... but somehow
done quite tastefully and sensitively.
Faggot/Cholo
Lynne Chan, Director
1996, approx. 5 minutes.
A latino gay man and an api FTM frolic in Los Angels to the
sound of bossa nova.
Farewell, My Concubine
Chen Kaiage, Director
1992, China, 154 minutes, Gay/Bisexual, Historical Drama.
The story of two Peking Opera superstars who meet as young boys,
and who, for the next 50 years, are linked by their stage roles.
Gorgeous and operatic in its grand sweep of lives played out
against vast social upheavals.
Fated To Be Queer
Pablo Bautista, Director
1992, 29 minutes, Gay.
A moving documentary that illuminates issues and concerns
for the Filipino American gay community.
FIRST YEAR
Trac Vu, Director.
1996, US, 16mm, 6 minutes.
Flesh and Paper
1990, UK, Lesbian, 26 minutes.
Pratibha Parmar, Director
The life and writings of the lesbian writer and poet Suniti
Namjoshi, who is from an Indian royal family and resides in
England. Includes interviews with her friends and with the
young Indian women who take her as a role model.
Flow
Quentin Lee, Director
Lee's first film, a feature complilation of his UCLA
student shorts.
Flowing Hearts: Thailand Fights AIDS
John Goss, Director
1992, Thailand/USA, 32 minutes, GLBO.
The White Line Dance Troupe uses Thai and modern dance to enact
AIDS awareness. Thai gay/AIDS activists are interviewed.
Forbidden City
Arthur Dong, Director
A film which artfully captures a fascinating chapter of
America's entertainment history - Forbidden City, the nation's
premier all-Chinese nightclub and a hot spot of San Francisco's 30s
and 40s club scene.
Forever Jimmy!
Nguyen Tan Hoang, Director
Fresh Kill
Shu Lea Cheang, Director
1993, 80 minutes, Lesbian, Drama.
An interracial lesbian couple make a life for themselves and
their daughter on the edge of Staten Island's Fresh Kills garbage
dump. Computer hackers, cable-access personalities, and Tent-City
residents inhabit a world of corporate manipulation and media
surveillance.
Full Moon in New York
1989, Hong Kong, Lesbian, Drama.
Three Chinese women immigrants in New York -- one from mainland
China, one a Taiwanese actress, and one a successful entrepreneur
and restaurateur from Hong Kong -- try to cope with their new
surroundings. The film can be taken as a symbol of the struggles
of the three Chinas to come together.
Funeral Parade of Roses
Toshio Matsumoto, Director
1969, Japan, 105 minutes, Gay/Gay Transvestite, Drama.
The first Japanese film to deal unabashedly with gay culture,
it's a modern parody of the Oedipus legend, except that this
time the Oedipus character, Eddie, must eliminate his obstructive
mother for the wild embrace of his father. In Japanese with
English subtitles.
Glad To Be Gay, Right?
1993, The Netherlands, 48 minutes, GLBO,
Andre Reeder, Director
Made for Dutch TV, this documentary features five gripping
coming-out stories, of which three are told by people of
color.
Gonin
1995, Japan, 109 minutes.
Takashi Ishii, Director.
"The feverish reverberation between Hollywood and Asian cinema,
which like competing fashion houses borrow rhythms, moods and
styles from one another, has rarely been more flashily
displayed than in the Japanese director Takashi Ishii's 1995
neo-noir thriller "Gonin." Opening Friday at Cinema Village,
this cinematic bloodbath dresses up the yakuza gangster genre
in ultra-contemporary drag and suggests a gay Japanese
"Reservoir Dogs" mixed with the gorgeously ominous
city-of-night atmosphere of a Michael Mann film." (Stephen
Holden, NYT)
Happy Together
[Cheun gwong tsa sit]
1997, Hong Kong
Kar-wai Wong, Director
Best direction, Cannes 1997. Same director as Chungking
Express. About a gay male couple from Hong Kong who go to Buenos
Aires. Finally a film with gay Asian actors that is not about
being gay, not about being Asian, not about being gay
and Asian, not about homophobia, not about being out, not about AIDS.
Are we finally coming to a point when you don't have to justify the
presence of queer api actors by exploring queer api specific issues?!
I Got This Way From Eating Rice
Nguyen Tan Hoang, Director
A movie which won 3rd prize in the High Tech category at the San
Francisco AIDS Foundation Gay Men's Erotic Safer Sex Video Contest.
I Like You, I Like You Very Much
Hiroyuki Oki, Director
Originally conceived and produced as a "rose family" genre film(gay
porn), this film is an orgasmic account of three 20-something men
racing through the streets of a Japanese coastal town, cruising guys in
tight-fitting 501s and ducking in and out of their steamy apartments.
Frameline teams up with NAATA to present I LIKE YOU, I LIKE YOU VERY
MUCH, a sweaty and intimate look at gay Nippon.
Isaak
Nick Deocampo, Director
A surreal study of death, domination, and a son obsessed with killing
his mother.
Harold and Hiroshi
Ed Askinazi, Director
1989, 38 minutes, Gay, Drama.
College romance between a Jewish boy and a Japanese boy, set
in a New England university on the eve of the bombing of Pearl
Harbor.
Hysterio Passio
Quentin Lee, Director
1993: 2 mins
Hysterio Passio is an over-the-top take on castration anxiety.
(Boston MFA blurb.)
Jodie: An icon
24 minutes.
Pratibha Parmar, director
Documentary about Jodie Foster as a lesbian icon.
Khush
Pratibha Parmar, producer and director
1991: 24 mins: Women Make Movies, New York
A videorecording of interviews with South Asian gay men and lesbians
living in the West and in India. Discussion covers topics of racism
within the Western gay community; the difficulty of developing an Asian
vs. a white concept of homosexuality; the cultural pressure to marry;
persecution of gay men in India; and the implications of caste barriers
in the efforts to build a united gay and lesbian Indian community.
The Kiss
Phillip Kan Gotanda, Director
1992, 13 minutes
The Kiss is the story of Wilfred Funai, a quiet unassuming office
worker whose defense from the hostile treatment from co-workers is
to hide inside a small, regimented world. One day, he witnesses an
event where he will either remain isolated or respond to a crisis,
perhaps even at risk to himself. Either choice will change his life
forever.
Kore
Tran T. Kim-Trang, Director
1994, Video 17 minutes., color, US
The third tape in Tran's Blindness Series investigates the
conjunction of sexuality with the eye as purveyor of desire
and the sexual fear and fantasy of blindness, with a focus on
the blindfold, women and AIDS. An elegant, challenging,
sexy work with deftly-juxtaposed visual and audio elements.
Ladyboys
Jeremy Marre, Director
1992, UK, 60 minutes, Male Transvestite.
Made-for-BBC look at two teenage Thai boys as they try to
escape rural poverty by becoming successful "katoi", or
female impersonators.
Lesbo Love
Desireena Almoradie, Director.
1994.
Images of two women in love from footage from a Filipino feature
film with two lesbians living in NYC.
Licensed to Kill
Arthur Dong, Director.
1997. USA. 80 minutes.
After being victim of gay bashing, Dong decided to make this
documentary by interviewing several gay bashers on death row.
Like Grains of Sand
Ryosuke Hashiguchi, Director.
1996, Japan, 129 minutes.
Living in the Shadow of Hope - A True Story
Ramesh Venkataraman, Filmmaker.
1996, 28 minutes, 56 seconds.
The first Indian film documenting the personal story of an
HIV positive individual. Semi-documentary, semi-dramatic.
Love Letters 1 & 2 (For Julian. Love, Hoang)
1995, US, 3/4" video, 4 minutes
Nguyen Tan Hoang, director.
M. Butterfly
David Cronenberg, Director
1993, 101 minutes, Gay Transvestite, Biographical Drama.
This film is based on the real-life story of a French diplomat
who fell in love with a mysterious opera singer in 1960's China.
He became a spy out of love for her, and was devastated to
learn, after he had been caught and brought up on charges,
that his "female" lover was a man.
Macho Dancer
Lino Brocka, Director
1988, The Philippines, Bisexual/Gay, Drama.
Drama about the lives of boy prostitutes in Manila. Available
from Awards Films.
Malaysian Series 1-6
Azian Nurudin, Director
1986-87: Malaysia
Videos by Azaian Nurudin, a lesbian Malaysian videomaker. Can be
obtained from the Frameline Distribution catalog.
The man in her life
[Ang Lalaki Sa Buhay ni Selya]
Carlos Siguion-Reyna, Director
This film was banned in its native Philippines. Through the
story of a love triangle set in a provincial setting, director
Carlos Siguion-Reyna explores traditional notions of marriage,
macho culture, and the Catholic faith in the Philippine
Islands.
Maybe I Can Give You Sex? Part I
Jurgen Bruning, Director
1992, Philippines/Germany, 30 minutes, Gay/Bisexual.
Parts I and II of this tape are a collaboration between directors
Rune Layumas in Manila and Jurgen Bruning in Germany. The videos
look at gender roles in the Philippines and examine the lives of
macho dancers, bar boys, and their customers.
Matricide
Quentin Lee, Director
Maybe I Can Give You Sex? Part II
Rune Layumas, Director
1992, Philippines/Germany, 19 minutes, Gay/Bisexual.
Parts I and II of this tape are a collaboration between directors
Rune Layumas in Manila and Jurgen Bruning in Germany. The videos
look at gender roles in the Philippines and examine the lives of
macho dancers, bar boys, and their customers.
Melody For Buddy Matsumae
[Matsumae-Kun No Senritsu]
Hiroyuki Oki, Director
1992, Japan, 50 minutes, Gay, Drama.
Chronicles ten days spent at a seaside town; five of them
with a visiting boyfriend, and five more after the boyfriend's
departure. This is the last film in director Oki's "Matsumae
Trilogy".
Memsahib Rita
Pratibha Parmar, Director
Parmar's debut dramatic narrative which weaves magical realism, film
noir and thriller into the story of a young woman struggling to balance
her father's nostalgic grief and her own sense of loss on the
anniversary of her mother's death.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
[Furyo]
Nagisa Oshima, Director
1983, 124 minutes
With David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Same director as Realm of the Senses.
The ritualistic account of the platonic relationship between Captain Yonoi
(Sakamoto) and his prisoner Major Celliers (Bowie) on a Japanese concentration
camp during WWII.
Midnight Dancers
Mel Chionglo, Director
1994: Phillipines: 100 mins
A portrait of three brothers held together by their mother while they
explore Manila's gay culture and work as "macho dancers", or "sibak"
(a "baklese" - gay slang term for male prostitutes). Directed by
one of Phillipines most polished and intelligent directors, Mel
Chionglo, it is unlike any other film in its fascination and erotic
charge.
Minoru and Me
Toichi Nakata, Director
1992, UK, 45 minutes, Gay.
A brutally honest real-life, as-it-happens drama of a man with
cerebral palsy trying to come out to the filmmaker, his friend.
As the filmmaker becomes increasing obsessed with portraying the
physically challenged man as disabled and dependent, the man with
cerebral palsy becomes increasingly disgusted and unable to state
what he's traveled all the way from Japan to say.
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Paul Schrader, Director
1985, 121 minutes, Gay, Biography.
An unusual dramatic film done in three unique visual styles,
shifting from a quasi-documentary view of Mishima, Japan's
finest post-war author, to black-and-white flashbacks and
excerpts from his novels.
MURMUR OF YOUTH
[Meili Zai Gechang]
Lin Cheng-sheng, director
1997, Taiwan, 35mm, in Mandarin and Hokkien, 117 minutes.
Muscle
Hisayasu Sato, Director
1993, Japan, 60 minutes, Gay, Drama.
In Tokyo, a journalist for a physique magazine falls into a
demented, operatic S/M relationship with a dangerously
charismatic bodybuilder. Not for the faint of heart -- the
movie starts off with a torrid sex scene which ends up with
one lover cutting off the other's arm. In Japanese with
English subtitles.
My Beautiful Launderette
Stephen Frears, Director
1985, UK, 98 minutes, Gay, Drama.
Race, social class, and sex are some of the issues that need to
be dealt with when a British street punk and a young Pakistani
entrepreneur fall in love.
My family tree
Mee Lin Youk, Director
4 minutes.
A mix of African-American and Chinese heritage makes for rich
and varied memories.
Nancy's Nightmare
Azian Nurudin
1988: Malaysia
Videos by Azaian Nurudin, a lesbian Malaysian videomaker. Can be
obtained from the Frameline Distribution catalog.
Normal Deviate Behavior
Adam Chin and John Voltz, Directors
1994: US: 16mm, 30 minutes.
Not Simply a Wedding Banquet
Taiwan.
Oliver
Nick de Ocampo, Director
1983
A documentary of the life of Oliver, a male sex worker (in fuck shows
in the now defunct Monokel bar) who does odd things with his rear end
(like spinning a web). What's peculiar with Oliver is that he is
supposed to be married with children and supports his family with his
earnings doing male-to-male sex shows.
Okoge
Takehiro Nakajima, Director
1992, Japan, 120 minutes, Gay/Bisexual, Comedy.
A young straight woman loves hanging out with gay men and lets
two lovers use her apartment for their trysts, to the chagrin
of her nosy neighbors. Highly erotic sex scenes. In Japanese
with English subtitles. Available from Cinevista.
Osaka Story
Toichi Nakata, Director
Raised in Osaka by his Japanese mother and Korean father and now
living in London, the filmmaker returns to his aging parents' home
where he must address his family's secretive and complicated history.
Additionally, he must decide whether to disclose his sexuality to
them.
Out in Silence & Not a Simple Story
Christine Choy, Director
1994, 37 minutes
These poignant films tell the stories of two Asian Pacific Americans:
one straight and one gay, Robyn Tirrell, a resident of Hawai'i,
and Vince Crisostomo, a native of Guam and resident of San Francisco.
Both have lost loved ones to AIDS. In two films, they have chosen
to disclose their own HIV-positive status to remedy the lack of
information and denial about AIDS in their communities. With
courage, determination, and a sense of privacy, they and their
families and friends step out of their private lives and publicly
challenge the myth that Asian Americans do not get AIDS.
Out Rage '69
Arthur Dong, Director.
UK/USA, 1995, documentary, gay.
Episode in The Question of Equality.
The Outsiders
[aka The Outcasts]
Yu Kan-Ping, Director
1986, Taiwan, 102 minutes, Gay, Drama.
An older photographer tries to make a home for a group of gay
teens who've been abandoned by their families because of their
sexual orientation. Available from Award Films.
Paradice
Anie Stanley and Patty Chang, directors
1996, US, 3/4" video, 15 minutes
Peach
Christine Parker, Director
1994 NZ 16 mins
Maori wife sees and admires dyke truck driver.
Preservation of the Song
Carter Martin, Director
1995.
This film portrays the survival and transformation of a
relationship threatened by AIDS. About a gay white activist
and a Filipino nurse, who come into conflict in their differing
approaches to AIDS treatment in the Asian community.
Queer story, A
Shu Kei, Director.
1996, Hong Kong, 111 minutes.
"At the story's heart is 46-year-old marriage counselor Law
Kar-Sing (George Lam), whose mounting trepidation about his
own wedding prompts him to confess to the camera, 'A gay man
getting married is like a Buddhist monk combing his
hair'. Backtracking to recount the events leading up to that
day, he is revealed to be the product of a conservative
upbringing, and not entirely at ease with his sexuality
despite having an eight year relationship with cocky
young hairdresser Sonny (Jordan Chan)." (David Rooney, Variety.)
Rasen No Sobyou
[Sketch of a Spiral (?)]
Yasushi Kojima, Director
1991, Japan, Gay.
A group of gay men in Osaka prepares a theater play.
Rich boy, Poor Boy
A tender love story between a haciendero and his farm boy. Shot on
video. International Wavelengths might have it. Gratuituous nudity.
The River
[He Liu]
Tsai Ming-liang, director.
1997, Taiwan, 35mm, in Mandarin and Hokkien, 115 minutes.
Sambal Belacan in San Francisco
Madeleine Lim, Director
1997, 25 minutes, 16mm.
A poignant and beautifully-shot documentary about the unending quest
for home and belonging for 3 Singaporean lesbians living in the Bay
Area. Key issues examined are cultural identity, immigration, and
lesbian sexuality. Richly textured, this unique film combines
interviews, newsreel footage, scripted scenes, and poetry, to reveal
the ordinary yet extraordinary lives of these 3 women.
Seven Steps To Sticky Heaven
Nguyen Tan Hoang, Director
Sewing Woman
Arthur Dong, Director
Dong's loving portrait of his mother and her journey from an arranged
marriage in China to life as a first generation immigrant.
Shinjuku Boys
Longinotto and Williams, Directors
UK, 1995
Gaish is an attractive woman who lives as a man with lots of
girlfriends that he gives sex to but never receives as he fears
removing his clothes. Tatsu, also a woman who lives as a man, has
testerone injections and lives happily in a sexual relationship with
another (female-identified) woman. Kazuki (the third woman living as a
man featured in this BBC documentary) lives with Kumi, a transexual
and dancer in a bar. The film follows them at work and at home where
they openly discuss their lives and their sexuality. Longinotto and
Williams also directed Dream Girls.
Shopping for Fangs
Quentin Lee and Justin Lin, Directors.
Canada/USA, 1997, 90 minutes.
Slight Fever of a 20-Year-Old
[Hatachi No Binetsu]
Ryosuke Hasiguchi, Director
1993, Japan, 114 minutes, Gay, Drama.
An audacious teen movie from Japan, featuring a bored middle-class
quartet; two hustlers, Tatsuro and Shin, and their two female
best friends. Tatsuro is the better hustler, and he spends his
days skipping school and entertaining clients, but when Shin
declares his love for him, Tatsuro has to enter the real world.
In Japanese with English subtitles.
The Silent Thrush
Sheng-fu Cheng, Director
1992, Taiwan, 100 minutes, Lesbian, Drama.
Backstage lesbian romance between a young girl who joins a
Taiwanese opera company and the company's leading lady highlight
this portrait of theater life in modern Taiwan. The young woman
finds the opera company not at all what she expects: audiences
are deserting the opera, the program now includes less than
respectable girly shows, and the star's long-time lover is
intensely jealous of her. In Hokkien and Mandarin with English
subtitles.
Sleeping Subjects
Quentin Lee, Director
Snowed In
Nguyen Tan Hoang and Shu Lea Cheang, Directors
A film on interracial desire.
Speaking for Ourselves: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Youth
Ann Coppel and John Mifsud, director
An honest glimpse into the lives of five diverse young people.
SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES brings out personal stories of coming-out,
survival and activism that touch, educate, and uplift while candidly
dealing with the issues and emotions confronting gay and lesbian youth
and their parents.
Straight for the Money
Hima B., Director
1994: USA: 60 mins.
A startling documentary about gay women and their jobs in the
straight porn industry. As both lesbians and as prostitutes and
strippers, these women balance their personal and professional
lives in ways that are lively and fascinating.
Ten Cents a Dance
[Parallax]
Midi Onodera, Director
1986, Canada, 30 minutes, Lesbian/Gay, Drama.
Experimental film exploring contemporary forms of sexuality
and communication between a lesbian couple, a gay male couple,
and a straight couple.
There's no Name for This
Thick Lips, Thin Lips
Paul Lee, director
1994: Canada: 4 mins:
The story of an intimate relationship between an Asian man and an
African-Amrican man (Boston MFA blurb)
To Ride a Cow
Quentin Lee and Deeya Loran, Directors
1993, 24 minutes, Bisexual, Drama.
A salty and deeply atmospheric story about a young Asian guy
who won't commit to his girlfriend (who's too smart for him
anyway) or to the boy he screws when he just wants sex.
Toc Storee
Ming-Yuen S. Ma, Director
1991, 21 minutes, Gay.
A multilevel narrative in which stories from Japanese and
Chinese history as well as the contemporary experiences of
three Chinese and Japanese American gay men -- and texts by
James Baldwin and T. Minh-ha -- are juxtaposed with each
other to create an open sense of tradition and resonance.
Trappings of transhood
Christopher Lee and Elise Hurwitz, Directors
1997, appprox. 30 minutes.
Lots of different shades of FTM surface in these interviews
with FTMs of various colours (including api).
Tubog sa Ginto
Lino Brocka, Director
1971: Phillipines
Tear jerker about a silahis father (Eddie Garcia), his son
(Jay Ilagan) and the father's lover (Mario O'hara). I think
this film had the first male to male kissing in Philippine
cinema. "Tubog is an adaptation of Mars Ravelo's classic
komiks novel. The film dared to explore the hitherto taboo
subject of homosexuality with Eddie Garcia in the lead role of
a married man who is also a covert homosexual." - Agustin L.
Sotto, film critic, Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino.
The Twin Bracelets
Yu-Shan Huang, Director
1990, Hong Kong/Taiwan, 100 minutes, Lesbian, Drama.
A young woman in an oppressive Chinese fishing village seeks
love and escape in the arms of her childhood girlfriend
against a backdrop of customs and mores that treat women as
property with no human rights.
Twinkle
[Kira Kira Hikaru]
George Matusoka, Director
1992, Japan, 103 minutes, Gay, Comedy/Drama.
Shoko, a translator with a drinking problem and Mutsuki, a handsome
gay doctor, decide to come together in a marriage of convenience to
satisfy their parents. The arrangement falls apart when Mutsuki's
studet boyfriend becomes jealous, Shoko decides she wants to have
a baby, and her parents find out about Mutsuki's homosexuality.
In Japanese with English subtitles.
Two or Three Things I Know About Them
Anson Mak, Director
1991, Hong Kong, 39 minutes, Lesbian.
An experimental four-part video that deals with the issues and
concerns of an emerging lesbian community in Hong Kong.
Viva Luamour
Tsai Ming-Liang, Director
1994: Taiwan: 119 Min: 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles
Tsai Ming-LiangUs follow-up to Rebels of the Neon God (1993
Festival) revisits some of the same themes of youthful alienation
and rootlessness, but it does so with a maturity and precision
startling for only a second film. May, a real estate agent,
occasionally picks up strangers for sexual trysts in apartments
she has on the market. Hsiao-Kang is also a real estate agent of
sorts, selling burial lockers for cremated remains. Ah-Rong, a
sidewalk clothing vendor, is streetwise and cocky. Each in his/her
way is looking for something; perhaps love, perhaps gratification.
What might have been a bedroom farce turns into a searing portrait of
loneliness, tinged with homoerotic desire. Co-winner, Golden Lion,
1994 Venice Film Festival.
Warrior Marks
58 minutes.
Pratibha Parmar, Director
Documentary about female genital mutilation.
Wavelengths
15 minutes.
Pratibha Parmar, Director
A reluctant woman discovers the joys of cybersex.
The Wedding Banquet
[Hsi Yen]
Ang Lee, Director
1993, Taiwan, 104 minutes, Gay, Comedy.
A Taiwanese immigrant who lives happily with his male lover agrees
to marry a Chinese woman to appease his tradition-bound parents.
A ribald comedy of manners and traditions in transition, with some
very good performances and well-written characters.
What Do Pop Art, Pop Music, Pornography and Politics Have To Do With Real
Life?
Azian Nurudin, Director
1990: Malaysia
Videos by Azaian Nurudin, a lesbian Malaysian videomaker. Can be
obtained from the Frameline Distribution catalog.
White Christmas
Michael Magnaye, Director
1993: 27 mins
White Christmas is a humorous look at growing up in the Philipines
from a gay Filipino American perspective. (from Boston MFA blurb)
Wicked Radiance
Azian Nurudin, Director
1992: Malaysia
Videos by Azaian Nurudin, a lesbian Malaysian videomaker. Can be
obtained from the Frameline Distribution catalog.
A Woman Waiting For Her Period
Wei-Ssu Chien, Director
1993, US, Video, 23 minutes., color
A wonderfully idiosyncratic and moving portrait that captures
the silence and displacement, as well as the intense intimacy
between friends experienced by Chinese graduate students in
the Midwest. Waiting for a menstrual period that never
comes becomes a metaphor of suspension and freedom of
living in another country.
Yang +- Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema
Stanley Kwan, Director
1996, Hong Kong, 80 minutes.
This highly personal film essay demonstrates that chinese cinema has
dealt with questions of gender and sexuality more frankly and
provocatively than any other national cinema, including the use of
phallic imagery, same-sex bonding and homosexuality.
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