After an absence last year, the LGBT+ Film Festival Bangkok returns with a promise to bring you into the multiple dimensions of the rainbow community through films, talks, live shows, events and a special art exhibition. Held by the Bangkok Screening Room, the festival celebrates diversity, equality and creativity. It runs from tomorrow until Sunday, with a roster of fiction and documentary films, as well as other activities.
The programme has been curated by John Badalu, an Indonesian programmer with experience curating films for festivals around Asia.
Go to http://bkksr.com for schedule.
BPM (Beats Per Minute)
An acclaimed drama about HIV/Aids activity in France in the 1990s, the film focuses on a group of activists called ACT UP, who tackle ignorant government agencies, the pharmaceutical companies and the public on the issue of the disease. These activists are mostly gay, and they adopt invasive, life-or-death strategies to raise awareness and shake society from indifference. Directed by Roman Robin Campillo, the film won a prize at Cannes Film Festival last year.
Tom Of Finland
Directed by Dome Karukoski, the film is a biography of Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen (starring Pekka Strang) and a well-known gay icon. After serving his country in World War II, Touko returns home but finds it distressing to live because of his homosexuality and the persecution of gay men at the time. He finds escape and consolation by committing to his art, inspired by muscular men in uniform.
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert. Photo © Bangkok Screening Room
Tale of the Lost Boys
Directed by Joselito Altarejos, Tale Of The Lost Boys is a story of the friendship between two men: Alex, a Filipino mechanic, and Jerry, a Taiwanese aborigine student. Fleeing to Taipei after leaving his girlfriend pregnant in Manilla, Alex meets Jerry and develops an unexpected personal relationship.
The Queen of Ireland
Panti Bliss (Rory O'Neill) is Ireland's famous drag queen, and this documentary follows her from an ordinary gay in the small town of Ballinrobe to one of the figureheads in the LGBTI community. The outspoken commentator is also a leading activist in fighting against her home country's homophobia and set the tone of the campaign for Ireland's historic referendum on gay marriage.
The Wound (Inxeba)
An acclaimed by John Trengove, The Wound (Inxeba) was South Africa's representative to the Oscars last year. Set in the Xhosa community, the film doesn't shy away from sex and violence as it tells the story of a young factory worker who joins the men of his community in the mountains to initiate a group of teenage boys into manhood.
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert
This 1994 landmark Australian film makes a welcome return to the screen in the festival. The film stars Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, in early roles before their Hollywood breakouts. Directed by Stephan Elliott, the comedy-drama is the tale of two drag queens and a transgender woman (Bernadette, played by Terrence Stamp) as they drive across the desert to perform at a casino in Alice Springs. It's one of the rowdiest and most exhilarating gay films of all time.
Those Long Haired Nights
A Filipino film by Gerardo Calagui follows three transgender women providing sexual services in the red-light district of Manila. Tuesday hopelessly yearns for true love. Barbie tries to earn money through drug dealing. Amanda returns to her hometown, hoping to attend her ex-girlfriend's son's christening. To her parents, she is a great son and daughter. Their lives become nothing if not part of a chaotic night.
Hard Paint (Tinta Bruta)
Set in Porto Alegre, Brazil's southern city, the film is about a shy, moody young man named Pedro who displays his naked body smeared with neon paint while thousands of strangers watch him via webcam. But when he learns that another chat-room copycat has stolen his technique of neon body paint, it causes a sudden change in Pedro's life forever.
