From April 11 to 28, the Singapore International Film Festival will feature some 350 films from 45 countries. The following films have been highlighed for its gay, lesbian and/or transgender-related themes based on reviews found on the Internet.
From top: Scenes from 101 Reykjavik, The Legends Of Rita, Love/Juice, Paragraph 175 and Shinjuku Boys
*Please note this list is not endorsed by the organisers of the Singapore International Film Festival.
19 (Japan)
Directed by 23-year-old Watanabe Kazushi, 19 delicately depicts isolation, loneliness, and irritation against the sick modern society. A young college boy develops Stockholm Syndrome when he is kidnapped by a group of young men who do not seem to know what they want from him. The student develops a fascination for his captors and becomes a willing accomplice in his own kidnapping.
The student's desire to experience their closeness leads him into an increasingly dangerous and possibly lethal game. Is emotional bonding between captors and captives a 'freak' incident or something else?
Screening Venue: GV Grand 6
Screening Date/Time: Apr 21 (Sat), 11am
101 Reykjavik (Iceland)
Hlynur is a 30-year-old loser who is not only on the dole but spends his days surfing the Internet for pornography while avoiding local girls. Quite determined not to grow up, he continues to live with his mother until he discovers that the woman he has just been in bed with happens to be his mother's lesbian lover, and may be carrying his child.
The scenes between him and his mother are touching and realistic and funny when she slowly and unsurely comes out to her incredibly distracted son. Fashionable, funny, modern and quirky, 101 Reykjavik' was awarded the Discovery award at September's Toronto International Film Festival for best first film.
More about the movie
Screening Venue: GV Grand 6
Screening Date/Time: Apr 21 & 22 (Sat/Sun), 4pm
Bukak Api (Malaysia)
Based on real persons in Chow Kit, this Malaysian film is made by and for the community in support of the need for community-friendly information. The audience is introduced to a small group of transsexual sex-workers of Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur where police raids are daily occurrences, and hormone treatments, drug use, brutality and AIDS are part of the lifestyle.
The characters depend on each other as many are rejected by their families. "Bukak Api" or " to open fire" is street lingo among sex-workers to mean "to have sex with a client".
Screening Venue: Alliance Francaise
Screening Date/Time: Apr 14 (Sat), 4pm & 7pm
Dream Girls (UK)
From top: Scenes from 101 Reykjavik, The Legends Of Rita, Love/Juice, Paragraph 175 and Shinjuku Boys
The few who are accepted must endure years of a highly disciplined and reclusive existence before they are groomed specifically for the lead female or male role. While their training for these roles is rigorous, the school is equally concerned with their training to be good wives. Some women eagerly stand in line for hours to deliver love notes to the "male" star, described by one fan as less coarse than "real" men.
Dream Girls was awarded the Best Documentary Prize at Films de Femmes, Creteil and was screened at the San Francisco Film Festival, Jerusalem Film Festival, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London Lesbian and Gay Film Festivals.
Screening Venue: Alliance Francaise
Screening Date/Time: Apr 13 (Fri), 9.15pm
The Legends Of Rita (Germany)
It's the 1970s, East Germany. Aided by the East German intelligence services, Rita Vogt, a Red Army Faction terrorist on the run and hides out under a new identity in the countryside as a textile worker.
She develops an intense friendship with disillusioned, cynical and hard-drinking Tatjana, which gradually crosses the line into physical love - a love that Rita eventually betrays when she meets a handsome lifeguard before being betrayed herself by the tide of history.
Directed by Volker Schlondorff (The Tin Drum), this intriguing political-psychological drama was named Best European Feature while leads Bibiana Beglau and Nadja Uhl took Best Actress Prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival 2000.
Screening Venue: GV Grand 6
Screening Date/Time: Apr 18 (Wed), 7pm
Lips to Lips (Malaysia)
Original intended to be a play, writer/director Amir Muhammad turned it into Malaysia's first independent digital movie after 2 speaking parts grew to 30. This campy comedy takes place in a day with four entwined stories that revolve around sex, food or accidental deaths.
A man tries to commit suicide while mourning the unexpected demise of his stepmother, who had come into fatal contact with an apple. A woman who accidentally kills her fianc after catching him in an unexpected sexual encounter. A love-lorn man who can never get his lovers to be faithful. A bookshop attendant who has a fetish for cook-books in the throes of unrequited passion for a girl.
More about the movie
Screening Venue: Alliance Francaise
Screening Date/Time: Apr 22 (Sun), 7pm
Live Nude Girls Unite! (USA)
Julia Query is a lesbian stand-up comedian and peepshow-stripper who also happens to be a daughter of a feminist activist. She decides to work as an exotic dancer at San Francisco's notorious Lusty Lady Theater to raise money to support her comedy habit.
When Query and her fellow co-dancers discover that they are being secretly videotaped for amateur porn, they head for the Service Employees International Union.
Julia soon discovers that her mother, Dr Joyce Wallace, well-known for her pioneering work with prostitutes and AIDS, is also scheduled to present at the conference where she will present about the union and perform her comedy routine. Dr Wallace becomes furious at Julia not only for being a stripper, but also for tainting her professional reputation with the stigma of a sex-worker daughter.
Screening Venue: GV Grand 1 & 4
Screening Date/Time: Apr 24 (Tue) 7pm & Apr 25 (Wed), 9.15pm
Love/Juice (Japan)
The debut feature of 23-year old, Shindo Kaze delves into dark territory that involves depression, lesbianism, cannibalism, obsession, drug abuse and rape.
Kyoko tries to comfort her housemate, Chinatsu by showing her affection after her lesbian relationship ended. Misinterpreting her affection as flirtation, Chinatsu falls in love with straight Kyoto. Soon enough, a conflict develops between them since Chinatsu wants Kyoko to be her lover and Kyoko wants to save the friendship without pursuing a lesbian love affair with her friend.
Screening Venue: GV Grand 6
Screening Date/Time: Apr 20 (Fri), 9.15pm
Paragraph 175 (US)
An unnatural sex act committed between persons of male sex or by humans with animals is punishable by imprisonment; the loss of civil rights may also be imposed. - Paragraph 175 (German Penal Code, 1871)
Paragraph 175, narrated by Rupert Everett, and produced and directed by Academy Award-winning Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman examines the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany.
The two followed German historian Dr. Klaus Mller, Project Director for Western Europe at the United States Holocaust Memorial, to Germany, France, England, and Spain in search of the remaining survivors.
Between 1933-1945, approximately 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality in Nazi Germany, half of whom were imprisoned while an estimated 10,000-15,000 were sent to concentration camps. By 1945, only 4,000 survived.
The film received numerous awards at festivals this year, including Best Documentary Jury Prize for Direction at Sundance 2000 and the Teddy Award for Best Documentary at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival.
More about the movie
Screening Venue: GV Grand 4, 5 & 6
Screening Date/Time: Apr 21 & 22 (Sat/Sun), 2pm
The Perfect Son (Canada)
Theo is the troubled brother, fresh out of rehab struggling with the challenges of remaining clean and sober while his older brother Ryan is an accomplished lawyer and typical over-achiever.
The estranged brothers have not been in contact until when their father passed on. As they go about wrapping up their father's estate, Theo discovers that Ryan is gay; has AIDS and is about to die. A bond develops between the brothers and an interesting role reversal develops where Theo becomes the responsible care-giver.
This film by first time director Leonard Farlinger is an emotional and inspiring journey that encourages one that it's never too late to reconcile with family.
Screening Venue: GV Grand 4 & 5
Screening Date/Time: April 12 (Thu), 7pm
Shinjuku Boys (UK)
Produced by the makers of Dream Girls, Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams, Shinjuku Boys is a fascinating and remarkable documentary about the lives of 3 onnabes who talk frankly about their lives as drag king hosts at the New Marilyn Club in Tokyo.
From the trips to the barber to their bedrooms, the three onnabes reveal their gender bending lives, sexual relationships with women and the supposedly straight women patronize the bar. Interestingly, neither the "onabe" nor the straight women identify as lesbians. Like the stone butches of the 1950s, the onnabes never take off their clothes, and they rarely receive as much pleasure as they give.
The film was awarded the Gold Prize at the Houston Film Festival, Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival, Outstanding Documentary at the SF Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and was screened at the London Film Festival, NY, Sydney, Honolulu Lesbian and Gay Film Festivals.
Screening Venue: Alliance Francaise
Screening Date/Time: Apr 14 (Sat), 9.15pm
Water Drops On Burning Rocks (France)
Set in 1970s Germany, a nave 20-year-old boy moves in with a vain 50-year-old businessman who worries if he looks his age. Six months later, the boy almost becomes a servant to the man who chides him constantly over trival matters. The youth is on the verge of committing suicide when his and his lover's ex-girlfriends turn up.
Water Drops On Burning Rocks is an engaging perverse study into sexual game and manipulation adapted from an unperformed play written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder when he was 19 years old.
The film won the Best Feature (Teddy Award) at the Berlin International Film Festival 2000 and Best Narrative Feature (Jury Prize) at the New York Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2000.
More about the movie
Screening Venue: GV Grand 6
Screening Date/Time: Apr 13 (Fri), 11am & 2pm
Booking:
To book call CalendarOne at +65 296 2929
Venues:
Golden Village Grand 1 Kim Seng Promenade #03-29 Great World City Singapore 237994
Tel: 738 5990 Fax: 735 5676 2.
Alliance Francaise De Singapour
1 Sarkies Road Singapore 258130
Tel: 737 8422 Fax: 733 3023
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