Our pain is the story of a transsexual. A girl who feels like a boy and wants to change her sex gender with the help of her lover but her father wants to stop her from doing this action.
Director Biography
She is a student of Asghari Farhadi, she is twenty-five years old, and like the character in her film, she is gay.
Director’s Statement
The characters in my film are parts of myself that are overwhelmed by politics. They just want to live without controlling them.
Cast｜Amit Rahav, Amir Khoury, Maya Dagan, Yaniv Biton, Ruby Porat Shoval, Peter Knoller, Maayan Selektar
Producer｜Tom Sidi, Ori Chevio
Cinematographer｜Daria Geller
Genre｜Short Film (Fiction: Drama, Comedy)
Length｜25min
Year｜2021
Dialogue｜Hebrew, French, Arabic, English
Subtitles｜English
Region｜Israel, U.S.
Production Company｜None
Synopsis
At a banquet hall in Israel, at the height of a war, Adam Weizmann’s bar mitzvah party was turned into a glorious catastrophe. On the cusp of manhood—and on the verge of a nervous breakdown—Adam takes a crucial step toward coming to terms with his sexuality.
Director Biography
Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Eli Zuzovsky is a director, writer, and journalist. A 2021 Rhodes Scholar-Elect, he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University with a BA in Filmmaking and English Literature. At Harvard, he directed numerous short films and plays, served as the features editor of The Harvard Advocate (the oldest continuously published college literary magazine in the U.S.), and received honors like The Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, The Thomas T. Hoopes Prize, and The Artist Development Fellowship. His short film Tonight You Belong to Me was selected for The Short Film Corner at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. His play Minotaur won the 2017 Jaffa Spring Festival. His work has been presented at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The American Repertory Theater, and Tzavta Theater, among others. His writing and translations have recently appeared in Haaretz, The Times of Israel, and The Harvard Political Review. Zuzovsky was the editor of Bamahane, Israel’s oldest weekly magazine, and won the Editor-in-Chief Award for Excellence twice.
Director’s Statement
“Happy Birthday. Your thirteenth is important. Maybe your first really public day.”
—David Foster Wallace, “Forever Overhead”
Mazel Tov is a coming-of-age film on speed exploring the wonders—and horrors—of self-discovery, a feverish odyssey whose entire action occurs over the course of a single evening. It is also a reimagining; a fictionalized account of the events that happened— and could have happened—on June 23, 2008, the day I “became a man” according to Jewish tradition. The film, which was my thesis project at Harvard, is my attempt at the reappropriation of my own growing pains as a means to meditate on the lived experiences of gay teens. By zeroing in on this Jewish rite of passage, the film inquires what it means to reach adulthood as a closeted boy against a landscape of heteronormativity and bigotry. The unique, performative nature of this public-private gathering, I believe, provides fertile ground for the exploration of the nexus of masculinity, queerness, and Jewishness in contemporary Israeli society.
凯尔·朱迈恩·弗朗西斯科通过拍摄短片学习电影制作。他拍摄了邦板牙时期的电影《咏叹调》（Aria , 2018）和 iWant 的剧集《我的单身女士》（My Single Lady , 2020），前者获得了 Gawad Pasado 的最佳制作设计奖。 他创作了短片《行踪》（Whereabouts , 2018），并在塞尔维亚萨拉敏达诺亚洲电影节和马尔托夫斯基电影节上展映。他的最新短片《边线》(Lines, 2019)获得CineSpectra电影节评审团奖，并在Cinemalaya及上海酷儿电影节、Out Film CT、美国QFilms等国际酷儿电影节上展映，同时入围 CNN 菲律宾、菲律宾电影评论家协会和拉普勒联合评选的 2020 年菲律宾最佳短片。 凯尔在 Mowelfund 电影学院和瑞奇李（Ricky Lee）编剧工作室完成了电影导演和编剧课程。
导演阐述
《边线》将 HIV 作为一个讨论话题。我想让HIV感染者的声音更响亮，尤其是那些居住在像邦板牙这样的省份的人，在这种深深植根于“不闻不问”文化下，他们对污名和歧视斗争的声音因沉默而被减弱。我认为这是一个不应被压抑的话题，而应作为一种交流的呼吁。呼吁沟通，呼吁强大的支持体系，因为它是治愈HIV的开始。除了 HIV 之外，我将讲述一对关系失衡的父子的故事，以及 HIV 自测盒上的两条线如何挽回两人间被遗忘的爱和亲情。这部电影展示了沟通如何在家庭中发挥关键作用，爱可以通过沟通来引导，而沟通本身就是爱。《边线》讲述了一个关于疾病如何将破损的家庭关系恢复正常的故事。
Director｜Kyle Jumayne Francisco
Screenwriter｜Kyle Jumayne Francisco
Cast｜Jal Galang, Menggie Cobarrubias
Producer｜Carlo Enciso Catu
Cinematographer｜Neil Daza
Genre｜Drama, Queer
Length｜9min31s
Year｜2019
Dialogue｜Kapampangan
Subtitles｜English
Region｜Southeast Asia, Philippines
Production Company｜Yatu Film Productions, Santa Filomena Films, Null Studios
Synopsis
A dysfunctional father and son, one still coping from a loss, the other with a highly-stigmatized illness, are compelled to talk to one another to make ends meet and heal the wounds of their relationship.
Director Biography
Kyle Jumayne Francisco learned filmmaking through designing short films. He later on designed Kapampangan-period feature Aria(2018), which got him a Best Production Design award at Gawad Pasado, and iWant’s My Single Lady series (2020). He created his short film Whereabouts (2018) and was presented at film festivals Salamindanaw Asian Film Festival and Martovski Festival in Serbia. His latest short film Lines (2019) won Jury Prize at CineSpectra Film Festival, was presented at Cinemalaya and international queer film festivals such as Shanghai Queer Film Festival, Out Film CT and QFilms in the US, and is included in the lists of top Filipino short films of 2020 by CNN Philippines, Society of Filipino Film Reviewers, and Rappler. Kyle completed intensive film directing and scriptwriting courses under the Mowelfund Film Institute and Ricky Lee Scriptwriting Workshop.
Director’s Statement
Gulis (Lines) treats HIV as a venue of discourse. I want to contribute to make the voices of persons living with HIV louder, with emphasis on those who reside in the provinces like Pampanga, who have been muted by the silence in their battle against stigma and discrimination rooted deeply in a culture of “let’s not talk about it”. I see it as a topic that should not be suppressed, but should serve as a call for communication. A call for communication is a call for a strong support system; and a strong support system is the start of healing. More than HIV, I will tell a story of a dysfunctional father-son relationship and how two lines of an HIV self-screen cassette bring back the once forgotten love and affection between the two. This film shows how communication plays a vital role in a family: that love can be channeled through communication, that communication itself is love. Gulis tells a story of how an illness heals a wounded relationship in a family back to its normal, functioning form.
最近，我在第十三届“新电影院”剧本大赛中获奖，让我有机会指导我的第一部短片《咔嚓!》。它迄今为止已经赢得了大约50个奖项，包括“巴黎德凡特法院”节上的“法兰西岛之旅”奖。因为这段经历，我得以完成我的第二部短片《斐洛斯》，由“HLM sur Cour(t)”竞赛中的获胜公司Respiro Productions制作出品，也得到了Arte、TV5 MONDE、CNC和科西嘉岛的支持。迄今为止，它已经在20个电影节中获得了20个奖项。
SIMON : ”I want to be a girl, mommy.” Alma freezes. She doesn’t know how to react: from now on, her 8-year-old son wants to dress up like a fairy to go to school. She asks for help from her neighbors. Soon the whole building is debating about Simon’s right to his gender choice.
Director Biography
I’ve been an actor for more than ten years, I acted in several leading roles such as Sebastian in LIEBMANN by Jules Hermann, selected at the “Berlinale”, and at the 2016 “European Film Awards”.
Director’s Statement
Recently, I was laureate of the thirteenth edition of the “Nouveaux Cinémas” screenplay competition, which allowed me to direct my first short film “CLAC! “which has won about fifty prizes to date, including the “Ça tourne en Ile de France” prize at the “Paris Courts Devant” festival. Thanks to this experience, I was able to direct my second short film ” Féeroce “, produced by Respiro Productions, winner of the “HLM sur Cour(t)” competition, with the support of Arte, TV5 MONDE, the CNC, and the Corsican region. It has won to date twenty awards out of twenty festivals.
Production Company｜Zhejiang University of Media and Communication, Huace Film Academy
Synopsis
In the year 2008, Ann and Nianci are good friends, growing up together in a small town in southern China.
When the plum-rain season arrives, Nianci’s mother comes and takes her to the city faraway. Ann sees the departure of her friend as betrayal, however, she could not make Nianci stay.
Angry as she is, Ann finds that she could scarcely bear the absence of Nianci, that hidden affection has developed. In the meantime, her friend seems to penetrate her feeling.
Director Biography
Wu Junhao, who grew up in a small town in northeast China, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Film Production from Zhejiang University of Media and Communication in 2011. The lost young filmmaker focuses on the spiritual dilemma of individuals and tries to present the unspeakable vague emotions and relationships with images.
Director’s Statement
The story takes place in a small southern town in 2008, a year which seems to be memorable for many people. The world seems to expand and liven up overnight. In retrospect, the confusion and lack of sense of belonging caused by the sudden loss of small world still can be evoked.
In this background, the film hopes to present a contradiction when homosexuality awakens in adolescence. The story begins with the impending departure of two young girls who grow up together and follow like a shadow. The departure seems to destroy their Eden: the lasting and stable days before will be gone forever. Their relationship becomes strained and their friendship begins to crack. Departure stimulates the awakening of their emotional consciousness and sexual consciousness; the ambiguous love in their innocence made them uneasy. Always unspeakable, teenage vague emotions can only awkwardly consume all the time they have. This is a kind of helplessness and deep emotion that only belongs to young people.
Director｜Houming Peng Screenwriter｜Houming Peng Cast｜Zhengjie Huo, Han Wu, Zhishun Chi Producer｜Houming Peng, Lin Cao Cinematographer｜Xuyang Yue Genre｜Short film, Drama Length｜16min Year｜2020 Dialogue｜Chinese Subtitles｜Chinese, English Region｜China Production Company｜None
Synopsis
In an early winter night in the north, a little boy learns of the death of his grandmother at the home of a stranger. The next day, penniless, he comes to the city cemetery for the first time and runs into another other boy who came to sweep his grandma’s grave…
Director Biography
Currently completing a bachelor’s degree at Beijing Film Academy. Director and Writer ofStanding (2009)—a one-take experimental short film
Director’s Statement
This is a short film of more than ten minutes. At the beginning of creation, I just wanted to express a kind of emotion which comes from myself—I went to a cemetery in Beijing on a whim during the Tomb Sweeping Day in 2019, I didn’t cry for nearly a decade, but for some reason I cried there. In terms of the script and the story, this is a film without a strong conflict, and the original intention of the film is to express a kind of an emotion. The script roughly has two lines: one is very specific line in which the grandma dies and Xiaoyu goes to the cemetery memorial, the other is the line of Xiaoyu’s life and emotions, from abasement to rekindling of hope. They are intertwined and both focus on the characters. However, the two lines are not completed well. During editing, I still focused on the emotional expression and blurred the story line, hoping that the audience could feel the emotion of the film rather than the story itself.
Qizhe returns home to spend his spring break with his mother. After meeting a man who he originally met online, he begins to lose control of his double life–one which is living true to himself, and the other, which is pretending to be the perfect son.
Director Biography
Zhanfei Song, a young Chinese filmmaker, currently lives and works in Beijing. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), where he has developed an eclectic style through his practice of diverse video forms. His earlier works mainly aim to criticize traditional cultural values. Song also holds a MA from London Film School. During his years at LFS, he worked as the cinemaphotographer and editor on several short films, which have been screened at numerous film festivals in Europe and Asia.
Director’s Statement
Nowadays, as the Chinese middle-class youth benefit from the relatively abundant material wealth and comfortable living standards, they become more audacious in exploring their sexual identities, which sometimes conflict with the ideologies the older generations believe in. For the younger generations, being true to themselves in the churning contemporary identity politics is challenging, particular in the space of family, where they confront the expectations of their parents. Against such a social backdrop, Qizhe, the protagonist of my film, is thrown into the turmoil of desire and lies as he comes of age with his homosexuality. Despite his efforts to maintain “peace” under a fragile familial roof, Qizhe needs to choose between his own happiness and that of his mother’s, thereby facing his “fated growth”.
Cinematographer｜Shuo Li, Guo Gao, Junmi Chen, Alexis Wang
Genre｜Documentary
Length｜45min
Year｜2021
Dialogue｜Mandarin, Southwestern Mandarin
Subtitles｜Chinese, English
Region｜China
Production Company｜Queer Comrades
Synopsis
On the 17th birthday of transgender girl Huang Xiaodi, the whole family gathered to celebrate her birthday. After dinner, her parents asked her to get in the car and take her to buy a birthday present. However, what awaited her was not the store, but an “Internet addiction school” on Gele Mountain in Chongqing. They believed that this would convert Xiaodi and make her a “normal” boy. Trapped in a “private prison”, Xiaodi learned to give in. In the face of violence and humiliation, she suffered disgrace to won the trust of instructors. Under her patience, a chance to escape finally came.
Director Biography
Chen Junmi, who lives in Beijing, is concerned about the situation of young LGBT people and has tried to promote anti-bullying in campus and prevent suicide among LGBT teenagers with films. Xiaodi is his first documentary.
Gao Guo, a queer born in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province in 1997.
He graduated from the Engraving Department of Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts in 2019 and was the former president of the Group of XAFA Olive Tree Public Welfare Society. After graduation, he worked as a choreographer and director, and now lives in Chaoyang, Beijing.
Director’s Statement
Try our best to turn the abstract so-called “conversion therapy” into a unique experience through film, which makes people feel the insult to personality and the destruction of dignity. At the same time, we reviewed Xiaodi’s personal growth history and family memories to help the audience understand the experience and growth process of a transgender person.
