Age of Documentary

Kiki  Kiki  P
Sara Jordenö
Sweden / USA / 2016 / Color / 94mins

In New York City, LGBTQ youth-of-color gather out on the Christopher Street Pier, practicing a performance-based artform, Ballroom, which was made famous in the early 1990s by Madonna’s music video “Vogue” and the documentary “Paris Is Burning.” Twenty-five years after these cultural touchstones, a new and very different generation of LGBTQ youth have formed an artistic activist subculture, named the Kiki Scene. KIKI follows seven characters from the Kiki community over the course of four years, using their preparations and spectacular performances at events known as Kiki balls as a framing device.

Inside the Chinese Closet  Inside the Chinese Closet  P
Sophia Luvarà
Netherlands / 2015 / Color / 72mins

Andy devotes his days and nights to looking for a lesbian wife of convenience who could possibly bear his child; from online search to underground marriage markets, he is meeting all sorts of girls. Cherry has already married a gay man, but the quest for a baby proves to be a far more complex challenge. Will Andy and Cherry deny their own happiness and sexual orientation to satisfy their parents’ wishes? Along the way, they clash with their parents’ hopes, their love partners and the partners of convenience.

Out Run  Out Run  P
S. Leo Chiang / Johnny Symons
USA / 2016 / Color / 75mins

As leader of the world’s only LGBT political party, Bemz Benedito dreams of being the first transgender woman in the Philippine Congress. But in a predominantly Catholic nation, rallying for LGBT representation in the halls of Congress is not an easy feat. Bemz and her eclectic team of queer political warriors must rethink traditional campaign strategies to amass support from unlikely places. Taking their equality campaign to small-town hair salons and regional beauty pageants, the activists prove to the Filipino electorate that it’s time to take the rights of LGBT people seriously.

Made in Bangkok  Made in Bangkok  PG15
Flavio Florencio
Mexico / Germany / 2015 / Color / 75mins

Morgana is a transgender soprano with a relentless determination to fight against social stigma and family prejudice to the attainment of a universal milestone, the self-assertion of herself as a human being with dignity socially recognized. To this end, she embarks on an odyssey with lights and shadows to try to build an identity persecuted throughout her life, an identity made in Bangkok.

The Priestess Walks Alone  The Priestess Walks Alone  P
Hui-chen Huang
Taiwan / 2016 / Color / 54mins

The Priestess Walks Alone is a journey, our journey. As a priestess, through chants and prayers during the “Soul Guiding” ceremony, my mom helps the dead achieve salvation, but she is bound to her painful past, unable to free herself. As a filmmaker, using images and sounds that unfold on the screen, I tell stories for the voiceless, yet I’m muted by a shameful secret, afraid to reveal the truth. With different mediums, caught between the living and the dead, as the past and present collide, my mom and I embark on a journey, attempting to find our salvation.

Real Boy  Real Boy  PG12
Shaleece Haas
USA / 2016 / Color / 72mins

Real Boy is the coming-of-age story of Bennett Wallace, a transgender teenager on a journey to find his voice—as a musician, a friend, a son, and a man. As he navigates the ups and downs of young adulthood, he works to gain the love and support of his mother, who has deep misgivings about her child’s transition. Along the way, Bennett forges a powerful friendship with his idol, Joe Stevens, a celebrated transgender musician with his own demons to fight.

Chemsex  Chemsex  R
William Fairman / Max Gogarty
UK / 2015 / Color / 83mins

A shorthand term made popular by gay men in recent years for the use of drugs (specifically crystal meth, GHB and mephedrone) in a sexual context, ‘chemsex’ has been seen by some as a significant contributing factor in the rise of HIV diagnoses in London. Often referring to group sex that can last several days, with one or more of the specified drugs used to free inhibition and enhance libido, the trend is argued to be fuelled by the growing use of online apps as a means of sexual hook ups.