Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America

As part of LGBT history month, SQIFF are showing Unsettled, a documentary about queer asylum seekers in America as the Obama administration transitions to the Trump administration. A moving look at how slow, bureaucratic, poverty-stricken, invasive, and even traumatic the asylum process can be. However, the film is ultimately uplifting, as each person seeks to…

Leitis In Waiting

So interesting. Leitis in Waiting is a documentary about leitis, a gender minority in Tonga, and their changing status in Tongan society. Tonga is one of the few Polynesian island nations that were able to successfully resist colonisation. They had an accord with Britain beginning at the start of the 20th century but always remained…

Breaking Fast

Breaking Fast is about Mo, a gay Muslim doctor in West Hollywood as he has this sort of chaste romance with Kal, this white actor, across Ramadan. Okay, so this is a mixed bag. Points for positive representation of gay Muslims, when positive representation of Muslims at all is scarce in American media. And a…

Queering The Script

So after watching Scream, Queen! about the really heartfelt queer fandom around the totally ridiculous Nightmare on Elm Street 2, I decided to watch another film showing as part of SQIFF, Queering The Script, all about queer fandom. This focuses on representation of gay and bisexual women and their relationships in tv. For me, this…

Pier Kids

Pier Kids is a documentary about the queer kids of colour whose only real home, place of safety, place of acceptance, is the Christopher Street Pier. Instantly that places it in the same lineage of films as Paris Is Burning and Kiki, which does 2 things: It shows up the progress with this film being…

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

Would bring a tear to a glass een. Not for Marsha, ironically, but for Sylvia Riviera, who really needed Marsha as her strength and who loses herself after she dies, staying on the pier where they dragged Marsha’s body out of the water, becoming homeless and lost to drink. It breaks your heart.