Preview: Golden Village’s 9th Love and Pride Festival

Queer film aficionados listen up! The 9th edition of Golden Village’s annual Love & Pride festival is BACK this September and October!

Taking on the theme of  ‘Identity’, the festival will run for 12 days from 27th September to 8th October, with most of the films getting two screenings across Golden Village Grand Great World City and Golden Village Suntec City.  Curated by the Singapore Film Society, a grand total of SIX films from all over the world riffing on all things LGBTQ will be making their Singaporean premiere during the festival, kicking off with Taiwanese director Chou Tung-Yen’s new documentary Looking For? complete with a Q&A session with film editor Huang Chia-Wen after the screening!

The other films in the line-up are Being 17 (France), Close-Knit (Japan), Die Beautiful (Philippines), Don’t Look At Me That Way (Germany) and Don’t Call Me Son (Portugal). Check out our detailed look at each of the films below to get a glimpse of what’s in store for you during the festival!

Looking For? (R21) dir. Tung-Yen Chou
27 Sep – 7pm, GV Grand Great World City

“Looking for…?” is probably a phrase anyone who’s had a brush with on apps like Grindr would be familiar with. In Looking For?, director Tung-Yen Chou this explores the impact technology has had on the dating scene in the gay world. Have relationships been reduced to simply skinship masquerading as friendship? Collecting intimate interviews with more than 60 subjects from various cities in making this documentary, the dating app becomes a measure of modern love and begs the question – does love live on in the age of Grindr?

Being 17 (R21) dir. André Téchiné
29th Sep – 7.20pm GV Grand Great World City & 4th Oct – 7.20pm GV Suntec City 

A tale of opposites, Being 17 tells the story of 17 year old Damien, who’s constantly at the mercy of bully Tom. But when Damien’s mother takes Tom in to help out Tom’s sick mother, the tension between the two boys reaches boiling point, and perhaps, sows the seeds of change to come…

Close-Knit (M18) dir. Naoko Ogigami
30th Sep – 4pm, GV Grand Great World City & 5th Oct – 7.20pm, GV Suntec City

Close-Knit follows 60 days in the life of Rinko, a good hearted transgender woman. Along the way we meet her boyfriend Makio and a lonely girl Tomo who joins them, and we watch these three individuals each find happiness as cherry blossoms bloom and spring arrives.

Don’t Look At Me That Way (R21) dir. Uisenma Borchu
1st Oct – 2pm, GV Grand Great World City & 3rd Oct -7.30pm, GV Suntec City

 

Don’t Look At Me That Way is a film that will bring together a heady mix of love, lust and relationships. Single mother Iva has just moved in beside Hedi, and the two start a torrid relationship as they fall head over heels for each other. Yet just as quickly as it starts, Hedi feels an all new attraction when Iva’s father makes a sudden appearance.

Don’t Call Me Son (R21) dir. Anna Muylaert
2nd Oct – 9.30pm, GV Suntec City  & 7th Oct – 4pm, GV Grand Great World City

Don’t Call Me Son sounds like a typical teenage film – we follow Pierre, a high schooler who rides his bike, smokes joints, chases girls and finds himself in a rock band. The twist comes when he discovers the woman he’s thought all his life to be his mother is in fact, not, and Pierre begins to question his own sense of identity as he goes out in search of his real family, and who he really is at heart.

Die Beautiful (R21) dir. Jun Robles Lana
6th Oct – 7pm GV Grand Great World City & 8th Oct – 2pm, GV Suntec City

 

When one has lived a fabulous life, the only way to die is to die beautiful. Trisha, a Filipino transgender woman, suddenly dies while being crowned champion in a beauty pageant. Her last wish was to be presented as a different celebrity on each night of her wake, but when her conservative father refuses and wants to bury her as a man, Trisha’s friends do the only thing a good friend would – steal the body and fulfil her wishes in a secret location. As they dress her lovingly night after night, the group reflects on the colourful and extraordinary life she led – whether as a son, a sister, a mother, a friend, a lover, a wife, and above all, a queen.

With tickets available at affordable prices, there’s no reason not to come down and check out these exciting, groundbreaking, high quality films in the queer cinema scene, certainly a rare opportunity in Singapore, and definitely something completely different from your usual blockbuster fare. See you guys there!

The 9th Love and Pride Film Festival runs from 27th September to 8th October at GV Grand and GV Suntec. All films are rated R21, except for Close-Knit, which is rated M18. For full schedule and tickets, check out their website here