Checking out short films
Apr. 6th, 2026 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jajalalaI've never thought much about film festivals, but a friend-of-a-friend recently alerted me and my roomies to a Boston queer film festival going on in the area (Wicked Queer) where a bunch of theaters are showing various independent queer films and shorts.
So we just went to a local short films showing themed around transgender stories. Each short film was around 10 min or so.
It ended up being a lot of fun. I'm a big fan of engaging with amateur/indie work (AKA why I've often enjoyed reading fanfic! And webcomics! And my friends' unpublished manuscripts! I think there's richness, depth, and sincerity you get from a work that has not been perfectly chiseled for the mass market) but I hadn't been cognizant of the fact there's a FILM version of that--these sorts of festivals, where people are showing film projects that AREN'T just big blockbusters.
All of the films were gorgeous with great cinematography, way more polished than I thought they might be. A few of them made me cry, one of them made me cry A LOT. Also gave me some good thoughts on storytelling in general.
My fave
The one that made me cry a lot was The Pink Funeral, which was about a closeted transgender Chinese girl who suddenly dies and discovers her soul has (yay!) the woman's body she's always wanted. She stays on Earth for a little bit as a ghost, watching her parents (especially her mom) mourn her male body and then haunting as her mother disrespects the hints of her female identity and tries to bury her as a perfect son. The tone for the most part was dark humor--we know the main character is dead IMMEDIATELY but there's a lot of jokes and kind of silly CGI for the haunting segments that mostly has you laughing. It takes a somewhat sudden dark turn towards the end, but it leads into a reconciliation. I think I cried a lot because it showed such a range--by making you laugh at the start, you get invested in the characters, and the dark part takes you on a more extreme low. Getting to see a happy ending was extremely healing.
Lovin' Her was also very sweet. It covered the life of an old transgender woman who is experiencing dementia, so as a viewer you're seeing vignette's of important scenes in her life interspersed with her getting care in a nursing home etc. I teared up a bunch because there were a bunch of little power-packed scenes, and even though dementia is harrowing there was also a relief in getting to know this woman got through all of this and is being taken care of and loved by her partner, even if she might not remember everything.
Things that made me struggle
A few of the shorts suffered from the restricted runtime, I think. They felt like the director was intending a much larger story, but then had to splice it apart and try to fit it to an acceptable length... but what they cut was stuff like, backstory and explanations. I could see a concept trying to get out which looked like they were meant to fit a whole TV show or feature-length film, but then had to be cut down to the "essentials"... and I think "actual explanation/introduction as to what's going on and what the premise is" was not considered essential XD.
The films that had a short, digestible concept felt the strongest--they gave the whole picture to the audience and gave a full, complete thought.
At the end there was a Q&A with a couple of the filmmakers who were able to join the screening! There was interesting talk, but I was also tickled to discover that most of them were a little shy and awkward. Movies are such a glamorous feeling business that I imagine filmmakers must be as charismatic as their actors, but they're more like storytellers who might prefer their hidey-hole behind the camera or script over being on stage.
During the Q&A, the filmmakers expressed joy that there was a showing/collection centered around transgender stories. Some of them were used to their films being part of showings as "the trans one", and all the focus/discussion being purely about that, so getting to have it in a block of other transgender stories allows the non-trans-specific aspects of their stories to have more of a spotlight. This was my first time at a short films showing like this, so it was interesting to hear how the theming and grouping affects the way stories are received and discussed.
Afterwards we went to a Korean restaurant that one of my roomies recommended where we got to have tofu stew! They were served in very, very hot clay pots that kept the soup hot pretty much the whole meal. I loved it--you would spoon the soup over onto a little bowl of rice, then eat the slightly-cooled soup with some rice, and get to enjoy deliciousness at just the right temp. In many cases soups suffer from getting cold in the time it takes to eat it, so this structure is genius.
The film festival is still going on, so I'm going to go to another short films showing soon, and am excited :D. It's really fun to check out just a bunch of snapshot ideas, and to discuss them with friends afterwards.
So we just went to a local short films showing themed around transgender stories. Each short film was around 10 min or so.
It ended up being a lot of fun. I'm a big fan of engaging with amateur/indie work (AKA why I've often enjoyed reading fanfic! And webcomics! And my friends' unpublished manuscripts! I think there's richness, depth, and sincerity you get from a work that has not been perfectly chiseled for the mass market) but I hadn't been cognizant of the fact there's a FILM version of that--these sorts of festivals, where people are showing film projects that AREN'T just big blockbusters.
All of the films were gorgeous with great cinematography, way more polished than I thought they might be. A few of them made me cry, one of them made me cry A LOT. Also gave me some good thoughts on storytelling in general.
More specific thoughts on the shorts themselves:
My fave
The one that made me cry a lot was The Pink Funeral, which was about a closeted transgender Chinese girl who suddenly dies and discovers her soul has (yay!) the woman's body she's always wanted. She stays on Earth for a little bit as a ghost, watching her parents (especially her mom) mourn her male body and then haunting as her mother disrespects the hints of her female identity and tries to bury her as a perfect son. The tone for the most part was dark humor--we know the main character is dead IMMEDIATELY but there's a lot of jokes and kind of silly CGI for the haunting segments that mostly has you laughing. It takes a somewhat sudden dark turn towards the end, but it leads into a reconciliation. I think I cried a lot because it showed such a range--by making you laugh at the start, you get invested in the characters, and the dark part takes you on a more extreme low. Getting to see a happy ending was extremely healing.
Lovin' Her was also very sweet. It covered the life of an old transgender woman who is experiencing dementia, so as a viewer you're seeing vignette's of important scenes in her life interspersed with her getting care in a nursing home etc. I teared up a bunch because there were a bunch of little power-packed scenes, and even though dementia is harrowing there was also a relief in getting to know this woman got through all of this and is being taken care of and loved by her partner, even if she might not remember everything.
Things that made me struggle
A few of the shorts suffered from the restricted runtime, I think. They felt like the director was intending a much larger story, but then had to splice it apart and try to fit it to an acceptable length... but what they cut was stuff like, backstory and explanations. I could see a concept trying to get out which looked like they were meant to fit a whole TV show or feature-length film, but then had to be cut down to the "essentials"... and I think "actual explanation/introduction as to what's going on and what the premise is" was not considered essential XD.
The films that had a short, digestible concept felt the strongest--they gave the whole picture to the audience and gave a full, complete thought.
At the end there was a Q&A with a couple of the filmmakers who were able to join the screening! There was interesting talk, but I was also tickled to discover that most of them were a little shy and awkward. Movies are such a glamorous feeling business that I imagine filmmakers must be as charismatic as their actors, but they're more like storytellers who might prefer their hidey-hole behind the camera or script over being on stage.
During the Q&A, the filmmakers expressed joy that there was a showing/collection centered around transgender stories. Some of them were used to their films being part of showings as "the trans one", and all the focus/discussion being purely about that, so getting to have it in a block of other transgender stories allows the non-trans-specific aspects of their stories to have more of a spotlight. This was my first time at a short films showing like this, so it was interesting to hear how the theming and grouping affects the way stories are received and discussed.
Afterwards we went to a Korean restaurant that one of my roomies recommended where we got to have tofu stew! They were served in very, very hot clay pots that kept the soup hot pretty much the whole meal. I loved it--you would spoon the soup over onto a little bowl of rice, then eat the slightly-cooled soup with some rice, and get to enjoy deliciousness at just the right temp. In many cases soups suffer from getting cold in the time it takes to eat it, so this structure is genius.
The film festival is still going on, so I'm going to go to another short films showing soon, and am excited :D. It's really fun to check out just a bunch of snapshot ideas, and to discuss them with friends afterwards.
no subject
Date: 2026-04-07 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-10 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-07 06:12 pm (UTC)Yes, this makes a lot of sense to me! It's always kind of miserable to be The One Trans Creator and feel like you have to represent the whole group and nobody's going to notice or remember anything about you except that one thing. When you're not singled out like that, it takes a lot of pressure off.
no subject
Date: 2026-04-10 02:10 pm (UTC)