Since it’s Pride Month, let us take a look at LGBTQIA+ films screening all over the country starting June 24 until June 30, 2023. Microcinemas such as the FDCP Cinematheque Centers in Manila, Iloilo, Davao, Negros, Nabunturan, and Cinema ’76 Film Society Tomas Morato are showing Wong Kar-Wai’s Happy Together (1997) and Lukas Dhont’s Girl (2018).
Tango scene in Happy Together
Happy Together is about the turbulent romance of Ho Po-Wing (Leslie Cheung) and Lai Yiu-Fai (Tony Leung) as they fight, kiss, make up, and break up while visiting Argentina. Intense love combined with jealousy is a concoction doomed to fail.
Lai bursts into a heated argument with Po-Wing, blaming him for stranding him in Argentina. Po-Wing gets beaten up when he is caught stealing. Fai takes him to his rented room and treats him with care.
InHappy Together, one of the best foreign queer films, the heartbreaking tango scene shows us that loving someone doesn’t mean you’re the best person for them. Ouch.
The ending sees Fai eating at a food stall owned by Chang’s (Chen Chang) family, a Taiwanese man he met at work in Argentina. He steals a photo of Chang posted on a frame, reminding him of the night market, in case they meet again.
He rides the train until the end credits. Wong Kar-Wai won best director at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for Happy Together.
'Girl'
Transitioning from adolescent to adult is Lara’s (Victor Polster) biggest challenge. The film that runs for one hour and 45 minutes tackles the dreams of a 15-year-old assigned male at birth of becoming a ballerina!
The film is loosely based on the life of Belgian Nora Monsecour, a trans woman professional dancer.
Lara suffers from the physical demand and pain of being a dancer. Her supportive father is one with her as she begins the process of her sex reassignment surgery. A boy takes an interest with her. Is love on the way? But she gets bullied, her health falters, and her doctor orders her to stop dancing for her upcoming operation. Will she accept all these conditions?
Our dear Lara has a different game plan only she can execute. Watch out for it! The film won the Caméra d’Or for best first feature film and Polster won the Un Certain Regard Jury Award for Best Performance at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
'Mamu and a Mother Too'
For local titles, Metamorphosis (2019), The Boy Foretold by the Stars(2020), Billie and Emma(2018), and Mamu and a Mother too(2018) are in the lineup of the Pelikulaya Film Screenings.
Transgender Iyah Mina made history when she won as Best Actress at the 2018 Cinema One Originals Awards for Mamu and a Mother too. She plays a sex worker whose only goal is to have breast implants. Her life turns 360 degrees around when she becomes a “mother” to her orphaned niece.
'Billie and Emma'
One of the lead actors in Billie and Emma was our former student, Zar Donato, who was nominated best actress at the QCinema International Film Festival. Two students meet—a newcomer and a star student—in a far flung province. The two girls fell in love but the twist is, one of them is pregnant. It was given the Gender Sensitivity Award, for its tender depiction of the coming-of-age of two high school girls brought together by their boundless capacity to love, no matter the gender of whom they love and despite its repercussions and its uncertainties.”
For the Pelikulaya Film screenings organized by the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) in Manila, tickets are available here: https://bit.ly/CCManilaTickets. For regional limited screenings, visit: bit.ly/c76tickets
Indeed, let us all celebrate Pride Month on the big screen with these LGBTQIA+ cinematic gems.