Fridae

QCinema’s forthcoming queer-film competition in Quezon City includes stories of a concealed relationship at a family dinner and a gay man’s longing in Mumbai. Eight films are listed in RainbowQC, the LGBTQIA+ section of the festival running from 13 to 22 November. Readers planning a cinema visit can check QCinema’s official updates for screening times and ticket information.

Among the Asian selections is Big Little Things, credited in QCinema’s programme to Michelle Tong Zhou. Its story follows Lei, who brings a man home on New Year’s Eve to pose as her boyfriend. Then her girlfriend arrives.

The premise has a personal history. In her statement for September’s Venice Film Festival, Zhou says her own partner first introduced her to the family as a friend. She describes the family’s eventual reunion and says casting her partner’s father allowed them to talk through cinema.

Being introduced as a friend can carry a lot of meaning for a couple.

Anuparna Roy’s Lovers in the Blue Night, an India-US production, moves to Mumbai. Venice’s synopsis follows four migrants looking for love and belonging. Among them is Karim, a gay man drawn to Sukka, a thief trying to escape the weight of caste.

In her accompanying director’s statement, Roy says the film draws on her own experience as a migrant and her attention to working-class lives. Her imagined characters want affection and acceptance as well as a way to get by.

The other six selections are Flesh and Fuel, I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming, Jim Queen, Little Trouble Girls, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma and The Riverbank.