2021-09-19
2021 Taiwan International Queer Film Festival Program Announcement
2021 Taiwan International Queer Film Festival
October 8 – 11 in Cinemas | October 12 – 31 Online
This year's festival theme is Days of Being Proud, emphasizing the lives of the LGBITQ+ community after the legislation of same-sex marriage. We are proud of marrying our loved ones, and we are one step closer to being treated equally. But at the same, the festival showcases the storytelling coming from countries that same-sex marriage is still illegal. Many film selections also showcase different diverse communities within the LGBTIQ+ people. This year's program will include over 50 films, including features, documentaries, animations, experimental works, and shorts.
The design, using grids to represent the diversity of LGBTIQ+ communities and emphasize the world we are in right now during the pandemic. To remind us, whether it's in cinemas, in your house, watching the film through whatever screen you prefer, we are all connected and together to go through this challenging time.
This year's program can be divided into 9 sections to include every aspect of the LGBTIQ+ communities' voices and love stories.
Days of Being Proud Section
Festival Opening Film Queendom (2021) documented how the pandemic affected the fabulous Paris drag scene. Luz (2020) by John Garcia tells the Latinx community's prison love story in America. Boy Meets Boy (2021) is a mumblecore about the journey of a brief encounter: the mark left by a fleeting moment of joy in Berlin.
Filmmaker in Focus: Koichi Imaizumi
Actor, Writer and Director Koichi Imaizumi started his pink movie career in 1990 and has appeared in more than 100 videos, including adult videos and independent films. He founded his own production company, "habakari-cinema and records" with Hiroki Iwasa in 1999. The festival will showcase Imaizumi's unique, striking and sexual works, including The Family Complete (2010), The Secret to My Silky Skin (2014) and Berlin Drifters (2017).
Boys' Love Section
Premiering Gameboys: The Movie (2021) by Ivan Andrew Payawal, adapted from one of the most successful BL series of the same title, is a coming-of-age infused with intoxicating sweetness and romance throughout the film. Another series adaptation, Hello Stranger: The Movie (2021), by award-winning director Dwein Baltazar, is a perfect summer camp love story without the parent trap. Japanese comic adaption, Coming Home (2021) by Ryuta Inoue, starring Yuki Furukawa and Ryo Ryusei, the two lost souls trying to overcome their fears and find comfort with each other.
Rainbow Aboriginal Section
Finlandia (2020) by Horacio Alacla, documented the stories of Muxes, indigenous transgender from Mexico, and how a devasting earthquake affects their lives. Two short films from Hawaii, The Rogers (2020), captures the lives of transgender men in the Pacific Islands, and Kapaemahu (2020), a masterful animation about the four mysterious healing stones on Waikiki Beach. Kapaemahu is shortlisted for Best Animated Short Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.
Young Love Section
Enjoy an Australia summer love in your secret hideout until the adults come to crash it all, My First Summer (2020) by Katie Found. Finding yourself is intersex during the teenage years, Metamorphosis (2019) by J.E. Tiglao. The short film, A Season in Hell (2020) by Nancy Cao is a poetic work that tells the story of a postulant's love affair.
Love No Limits Section
Welcome to Chechnya: Inside the Russian Republic's Deadly War on Gays (2020), directed by award-winning director and New York Bestselling author David France, is a terrifying journey that uncovers the brutality against LGBTIQ+ in Russia. Found of Palm Drive Video in America, Raw! Uncut! Video! (2021) experiments and exposed men's all kinds of secret sexual desire and sensitivity. Filmed over two years, Under The Skin (2019), director Robin Harsch follows the transition of three trans teenagers Logan, Söan, and Mixair, from Switzerland.
Panorama Section
A Distant Place (2020) by Park Kun-Young, a heartfelt story of romance and the definition of family, gracefully captured through mesmerizing performances and breathtaking scenery. At the End of Evin (2021), question why there is such a high transexual operations population in Iran. Love, Spells and All That (2019) by the talented Turkish director Ümit Ünal, captures the island's beauty, but people on it are under oppression by society.
Taiwan & Sinophone Short Film Section,
Queer Shanghai (2019) is collective footage of Shanghai's LGBTIQ movement from 2003 to 2018. Kiss Not Pounch program featuring four short films from Taiwan explored with dangerous desire, fury and rage. Youth Desire program tackles the youth's fascination with sex and romanticism. Dear Family program, with five short films portraying the life of same-sex marriage's intimacy and parenthood. Body/Buddy program includes six animation and experimental works to push the boundaries and limitations of filmmaking. Q-Topia program, six short films' unique and futurist storytellings on LGBTIQ representation.
Queer Asia Short Film Section
Queer Asia Short Film Section 1 features three short films, including a stunning portrayal of a trans character's life in South Korea, God's Daughter Dance (2020). How to Die Young in Manila (2021) is the 2020 Berlinale Talents Project and screened at Busan and Singapore International Film Festival, a mysterious and stylish short film about a teenage boy looking for his hook-up in the Philippines. Return to Sender (2020), an endearing mail-boy in Myanmar trying to deliver the letters that have bounced back multiple times.
Queer Asia Short Film Section 2 features four short films from across Asia, including Solid (2020) by Japanese director Iwasa Hiroki, about two guys getting interrupted by earthquakes during sex. Journey to the Shore (2020), won the 2021 Asian Pacific Short Film Competition at Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival, about a couple celebrating their anniversary but only to find out there is a hidden secret about to be unveiled. Between Us (2020), an intimate portrayal of a transgender man's struggle in a rural Japanese town. Kiran (2021) is an appealing medication using the craftwork of henna to protract the two same-sex love in Pakistan.
Ticket Price:
Cinemas screening
- Early bird 200 TWD (book before October 7th 23:59pm)
- Single Ticket 240 TWD
- Pension 120 TWD
- Couple Tickets 350 TWD
- Taiwan & Sinophone Short Film Pass 1000 TWD
Online screening
- Early bird 110 TWD (book before October 7th 23:59pm)
- Single Ticket 130 TWD
- Taiwan & Sinophone Short Film Pass 600 TWD
- Queer Asia Short Film Pass 200 TWD