https://queerscreen.org.au/
Among the many selections are two Filipino films to watch out for.
For someone who passed on the mashed potato to skip carbs, he sure loves his apple pie! OK, now that I got that out of the way, this film took me on a roller coaster ride of plot twists and character reveals, much more than that old red Volks can handle. I loved Jun Lana’s DIE BEAUTIFUL, and this one, despite its COVID lockdown budget, entertained me as well. Based on his interview, Lana admits that this is partly autobiographical as Lana is the youngest member of the Palanca Hall of Fame for winning 11 Palance Awards for Literature, the most prestigious literary body in the Philippines. So, this is definitely going to be a hit as a theatre play, and mostly it is, a two-hander that could probably be cliched and boring, possibly a gay romance between the professor and his student, but then it did get very dark, and though unbelievable at times, I was hooked. The dialogue had that truth is stranger than fiction feel to it as it can be based on Lana’s life experiences. Won the Talin award and is quite deserving. He wrote this in three weeks during a bout of depression during the lockdown. Can’t wait for his future work.
This Filipino episodic from Samantha Lee about a lesbian love affair is well-filmed, well-edited, and well-directed. Good production values capture good mise-en-scene showing interesting, middle-class areas of Manila. As far as storytelling and scripting, I don’t think it will stand alone as one episode. The dialogue, humour and syntax are unique to Filipino sensibilities, and some are too corny and cringe-worthy at the extreme for Western audiences. The major strength of this episodic is the disability representation and the culture of openness to LGBTIQ+ individuals, but I feel the episode touches the surface of the characters only without really getting deep into the nuances. A second episodic instalment can redeem that.
The 30th Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival from Queer Screen starts 15 February – 2 March 2023, with various LGBTQI+ films on offer.
Actions speak louder than words in Tsai Ming-liang’s third of his trilogy on urban isolation and loneliness, a confrontational drama involving a father-son entanglement. THE RIVER is known to be the “bleakest” work of the master auteur, and this masterpiece is quite a highlight at the Taiwan Film Festival 2019 in Sydney, Australia.
