A movie that's good

Ben Tanaka and his girlfriend Miko Hayashi exit a movie theater. There is a sign by the entrance saying "Asian American Digi-Fest." They walk to their car.

Miko: Well, I know that probably wasn't your cup of tea, but thanks for coming.

Ben: Did you really like that?

M: I guess it was kind of corny, but... yeah.

B: I can't believe that was supposed to be the best of the festival. Talk about a big fish in a small pond.

M: Well we had more submissions than ever before this year.

B: Yeah... of digital videos made by Asian-Americans who happen to live around here. Didn't they also have to be left-handed or something?

They get in the car, and keep talking.

M: We worked really hard to put this festival together.

B: I know! I'm not criticizing you. I'm criticizing the shitty movie. Am I allowed to voice my opinion?

M: You don't have to. You made it perfectly clear with all your fidgeting and groaning. I'm sure that Ling could hear you snickering throughout her film.

B: It's good for her! You can't control an audience's reaction.

M: Well it's a little embarrassing for me. And really, who are you to criticize?

B: Hey... I know a lot more about movies than she does. I'm in the industry...

M: "The Industry"? You manage a theater!

B: That's right... a real movie theater. Where none of those movies are good enough to play at.

M: Look, if you didn't like the movie, that's fine. I don't understand why you have to get so angry.

B: Because everyone knows it's garbage, but they clap for it anyway because it was made by some Chinese girl from Oakland! I mean, why does everything have to be some big "statement" about race? Don't any of these people just want to make a movie that's good?

- from Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine

I'm really looking forward to the Frameline San Francisco International LGBT film festival. There is something very exciting about being in a room of largely queer people watching films depicting queer lives, perhaps because so much of the oppression of queers is enacted through invisibility and shame. Of those films I am especially drawn to films set in Southeast Asia or made by Southeast Asian queer directors or starring Southeast Asian actors (the photo above is from the publicity page for the short film "Swing" set in Singapore)

On the one hand it's a little embarrassing. I worry that I'm falling into some kind of trap of just liking a film "because it was made by some Chinese girl from Oakland" (which would somehow destroy my discerning-cinema-goer-cred). On the other hand, I think that there's something particular about the filmmaking process too that resists shame in a powerful way which in turn makes the film good just by nature of its usually devalued subject matter. In order for a film to be made and shown, generally a whole mess of people has to be involved, not least of which is the audience. Queer film for queer audiences, but screened for the public is liberating because it says "we will spend time and resources to document our lives and make those documents public, and we will do so in a way that engages us as a community, but invites any who care to see it to do so." That's pretty wow to me.

And the other thing is... there's some kind of affinity for me between my queerness and the medium of film. It's been a long cultural trope that gay men, especially, are more creative, or that we have special talent at the arts. I don't want to give too much credence to this, but there has, at least academically, been a connection between queer theory and film. For myself, and for many others, our first exposure to "queering" was through film - learning to re-read ostensibly "straight" movies made during the time of the Hollywood "code" through a queer lens (even some of the central metaphors of queer theory invoke film. We speak of 'lenses' and 'performativity').

At the same time, of course, I must admit I've sat through many terrible movies and even sort of liked them just because they had gay or bi male central characters. Sadly I can't say I had the same indulgence for films just because they depicted queer women or transgender characters (this was made abundantly clear to me when, after a back-to-back screening of "Beautiful Thing" and "Better Than Chocolate" my lesbian friend and I expressed diametrically opposed views about which film was 'the sweetest thing ever' and which film was trite and boring).

Ok so this post was mainly an excuse to publicize the festival as well as Tomine's excellent book, and to use the word "affinity."