LGBT

Vancouver Taiwanese Film Festival 2017 explores LGBT Taiwan with short film program

by Craig Takeuchi on June 8th, 2017 at 12:27 PM
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      Taiwan is on track to become the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, thanks to a milestone ruling by Taiwan's Constitutional Court.

      If you want to celebrate this development or learn more about the state of LGBT people in Taiwan (or both), the 2017 Vancouver Taiwan Film Festival, which runs from Friday to Sunday (June 9 to 11), is offering a program of three short queer films.

      Pride Short Film Series will screen at 5 p.m. on Saturday (June 10) at Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour Street), and is presented with community partners Cor Flammae and the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

      A recurring theme in these poignant films is the discovery of secret truths hidden behind walls of silence.

      "The Priestess Walks Alone"

      In "The Priestess Walks Alone", filmmaker Hui-Chen Huang attempts to broach the shame that her priestess mother has quietly held for years about a secret and painful past.

      Yueh-Tzu Sun's "The Door" depicts how a gap between a teenage girl and her father is bridged when she discovers her father is secretly gay and she begins to reconsider the meaning of family.

      "The Rose Boy"

      Meanwhile, Chi-Jan Hou's "The Rose Boy" addresses a tragic incident in 2000 when a Grade 9 student, Yeh Yung-Zhi, was discovered dead in a school washroom after being bullied for being feminine. However, his death inspired the launch of the Taiwanese Gender Equality movement.

      To buy tickets or for more information about these films or the festival, visit the VTFF website.

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