OUT/HERE (SHORTS)

Shorts / 78 mins

OUT/HERE (SHORTS)

Castro Theatre
March 15, 2015 12:00 pm Not Available

Description

They may be short, but this year’s collection of films for our OUT/HERE program broadens the scope of what it means to be queer. These films vary not only in experiences as an out member of the LGBT community, but also in perspectives on the subject as well: from interviews with the first generation of Asian Pacific Islander queer activists in the San Francisco Bay Area to an experimental performance that pokes fun at cinematic romance, and from a sperm donor’s love letter to his yet-to-be-born child to a child’s point of view on the much debated subject of same-sex marriage. These narratives and documentaries scratch the surface of the much larger dialogue about the Asian American queer community.

– Lauren Lola

Co-Presenter: API Equality Northern California & Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project

In This Program

100 Crushes Chapter 6: They

Elisha Lim / Shorts / Canada / 2014 / Documentary, Gay/Lesbian, Short / 2 mins
Winner of Best Emerging Artist at the Inside Out 2014 Toronto LGBT Film Festival, filmmaker Elisha Lim recounts her roommate finding delight in one word that truly identifies them. This eventually opens up a new kind of freedom where the gender binaries are no longer strictly set.
Deconstructing My Depression

Sally Tran / Shorts / USA / 2013 / Bay Area Connection, Family, Gay/Lesbian / 9 mins
Mental illness is often an ignored issue in communities of color — passed off as an issue experienced only by the rich and the privileged. In this personal narrative, filmmaker Sally Tran breaks down her struggles with depression — as a first-generation Vietnamese American and as a member of the queer community.
Distance Between

R.J. Lozada / Shorts / USA / 2014 / Documentary, Short / 9 mins
Filmmaker R.J. Lozada has offered to be a sperm donor for a lesbian couple wanting to conceive. Knowing that he might not play an active part of the child’s life, this documentary serves as a sort of love letter to the child, in an attempt to establish a paternal bond.
Finger Running

Diana Li / Shorts / USA / 2014 / Bay Area Connection, Experimental, Short / 9 mins
Two women run their fingers through eachother's hair in an experimental performance that mimics gestures of desire and intimacy.
My Beautiful Resistance

Penny Baldado / Shorts / USA / 2014 / Bay Area Connection, Documentary / 8 mins
Penny Baldado, owner of Oakland, CA’s Café Gabriela, originally moved to the United States to live as an out lesbian, because she felt that she couldn’t do that in her native Philippines. Her status as an undocumented immigrant becomes an obstacle as she attempts to establish her American life.
Operation Marriage

Quentin Lee / Shorts / USA / 2014 / Bay Area Connection, Documentary, Family, Gay/Lesbian, Short / 9 mins
Based on Cynthia Chin-Lee’s children’s book of the same name, two children work together to get their mothers married before the passing of California’s Prop 8. Veteran director Quentin Lee’s OPERATION MARRIAGE, starring Mindy Cohn and Tamlyn Tomita, explores LGBT rights and issues through a child’s point of view.
Ordinary Family

Hyunju Lee / Shorts / Korea / 2014 / Drama, Family, Gay/Lesbian, Narrative, Short / 24 mins
Su-young is anticipating going on her first vacation with her girlfriend, Young-mi. When she receives word from home that her father has been hospitalized, she must reluctantly visit her parents — and drag a not-at-all-satisfied Young-mi along with her.
Sex, Politics, and Sticky Rice

Tina Takemoto / Shorts / USA / 2014 / Documentary, Short / 8 mins
From protests to potlucks and even three-ways, filmmaker Tina Takemoto sheds light on an overlooked aspect of LGBT history. Stories are told and experiences are recounted from five of the first generation of Asian Pacific Islander queer activists from the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s.