Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Alternative perspectives

Perhaps the most heartening feature of “Films of Desire: Sexuality and the Cinematic Imagination”, a travelling festival of films based on sexuality, was the number of people in attendance. Thus, not only did the festival create the space for alternative perspectives to be aired, but also drew in a sizeable number of people to populate the space, unlike so many other film festivals one normally sees.

And thankfully the collection of films, showcased over seven hours at Alliance Francaise last Saturday, did not disappoint. Organised by Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action and The South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality, in association with Good As You and Swabhava, this travelling festival has been culled out of a larger festival held at Neemrana near Delhi, and comes with an added focus on issues related to the sexuality minorities. In so doing, it presents a collection of perspectives, the variety and uniqueness of which one is not normally exposed to. “Sea In The Blood”, a 26-minute personal essay by Richard Fung, details the two most personal relationships of Fung’s life: with his sister Nan, who died of a rare blood disorder called thalassemia (literally “Sea in the blood”) and with his lover Tim, who has been living with HIV since 1980. A moving account of love in the face of adversity, the film was particularly moving for the way it layered its narrative so that the intensely personal synched wonderfully with the social. Also interesting, although not in the same league as the first film, was “Love For Share” by Nia Danata, an intriguing portrait of polygamous lifestyles in contemporary Jakarta. This interweaving of the stories of three women confronted with three different forms of polygamy was light-hearted but not frivolous. And its portrayal of the accommodations that women make in polygamous arrangements, as well as the resistances they offer to them, was done in a nicely non-judgemental manner.

The two big highlights of the festival though, were “Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros” by Auraeus Solito and “Beautiful Boxer” by Ekachai Uekrongtham. The former film follows Maximo, a preteen boy who lives a feminine life and falls in love with a policeman named Victor. The difficulty for Maximo, however, is that his family leads a life of petty crime, and one of them has committed murder; a murder that Victor is determined to solve. Caught in the midst of a tussle between family loyalty and loyalty to his own feelings, Maximo learns the difficult lessons of life and love. Beautifully crafted with a lovely tempo and distinctive style, the film empathises with a family and a world that understands the unique nature of Maximo, but finds itself helpless to accommodate that uniqueness into itself. “Beautiful Boxer”, based on the real life story of Parinya Charoenphol, a Muaythai boxer who underwent a sex change operation to become a woman. With an endearing performance by Asanee Suwan as Nong Toom/ Parinya, the film crafts the protagonist’s dilemmas perfectly, charting the transition from boyhood to adulthood to womanhood with a warmth and maturity that brings home the conflicted nature of Parinya’s life in an amazingly lucid manner. It might have been an even better film, if it did not occasionally succumb to the need to fill space with some contrived portions that interrupt and hurt and the film. Thankfully, however, these artificial bits are few and far between.

Among the short films screened at the festival, Namita Malhotra’s “One Wife to Another”, which premiered at the festival, was an interesting exercise in the visualisation of a written text: in this case, a poem in Pali from the collection called “The Absent Traveller” translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. Also entertaining was “Cut” by Royston Tan, a cutting, tongue-in-cheek response to the issue of censorship that among other things asks a censor, who protects them when they are exposed to the immorality and depravity in films that they are afraid will corrupt the rest of us mere mortals. On a disappointing note, though, were “Locust” by Victric Thng and “The Matchmaker” by Cinzia Puspita Rini, both of which brought little that was new or captivating.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail