BANGKOK — First love at an abandoned pool and love between Beijing opera performers will screen at an LGBT film festival in late June.
Bangkok Screening Room will screen four films, two of them Thai, with LGBT themes to celebrate Pride Month – a month designated by some activists to raise awareness for gender identity – from June 27 to 28.
“The Blue Hour” (2015) was Thailand’s submission to the Berlin Film Festival that year and features Tam, who meets Phum from the internet at an abandoned, eerie swimming pool – that Phum says is haunted. The film will screen 5pm June 27 and 3pm on June 28.
A retired transgender woman in rural northern Thailand who strikes up a romance with a local mechanic, a straight man who falls in love with a ‘ladyboy,’ and a novice monk who falls for a senior monk – “It Gets Better” (2012) has all the essentials of a Thai LGBT film.
Director Tanwarin Sukkhapisit will be at the 2pm June 27 screening to give an introduction, and the film is screened again on 5:15pm June 28.
Chen Kaige’s legendary “Farewell my Concubine” (1993) starring the late Leslie Cheung and the winner of the Palme d’Or of the same year will screen 7:30pm on June 27 and an 11:30am matinee on June 28.
Cheung plays a Beijing opera performer who acts in feminine roles and is irrevocably drawn to a troupe member who plays masculine roles – all while the People’s Republic of China forms and the Cultural Revolution looms.
The only film about a lesbian relationship on the roster is “Summertime” (2015), a French film set in 1971 and tells the story of Carole and Delphine who fall in love during the days of feminist activism.
Thai films will be screened with English subtitles and the other two films will be screened with both Thai and English subtitles. Book tickets here, which cost 130 baht for children under 12, 170 baht for students, 160 baht for members, and 200 baht for adults.
