The Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival (LACFF) has done it again.
After virtually screening nine indie productions for free last year, LACFF recently announced the showcasing of four works of queer cinema for the first month of 2021. The program is co-hosted by Chinese Rainbow Network, Taiwan International Queer Film Festival, UCLA LGBTQ Campus Resource Center and unCoVer.
The four indie productions examine a range of bold themes that remain under-explored in our society: transgender rights in an authoritarian state, queer female love and intersectional identity struggles.
The films will all be available on streaming platform Montage, where you can enjoy a RADII discount of 20% by entering the code “RADIIChina”.
In We Outlaws, Wang Kaixuan — Assistant Director on Wong Kar Wai’s forthcoming TV series Blossoms — takes us back to China in the early ’90s, when “crimes of indecency” were still very much enforced. The film explores the double life and identity of an ordinary factory worker, Chen Shi, who roams dancehalls at night in a red dress.
Olivia Liu puts a nice twist on the typical road trip romantic comedy by intertwining elements of sci-fi and time travel in her film, The Last Lesbian. The heroine must travel back in time from 2318 to 2018 in order to save the world’s last gay community, while her savior, Bella, has no time for gays from the future and must attend to a huge fashionista conference that could make or break her career.
Although Taiwan was the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage in 2019, Kuo Hsin-Ying’s SHe sheds light on the life of a gay couple who registered their marriage in 2013 — with their birth sexes as male and female. With vivid depictions of the couple’s tender care for each other, the documentary examines the prejudices and voyeurism the couple combats in their everyday lives.
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Mom’s Clothes is a beautifully honest non-fiction film by Chinese-American filmmaker, Jordan Wong. Wong shares his journey of navigating life outside the closet and how garments became a crucial part of his identity.
While each short touches on a subject personal to the director, all of them share a protagonist who demonstrates resilience in the face of adversity, isolation and even discrimination. And during a pandemic-era exacerbated by political turmoil, stories such as these offer a particular sense of comfort and strength.
All films mentioned above will be screened on Montage from January 15 to February 5, 2021. A Q&A session will also be held at 7 PM PST on January 30. RADII readers can get 20% off of all Montage premium content by entering the code “RADIIChina.”
Cover photo: still from We Outlaws by Wang Kaixuan.; in text photo: Mom’s Clothes by Jordan Wong.
