“It doesn’t hurt to be called homosexual, what hurts is when they throw it in your face like it’s an insult.”
These are the piercing words of Chavela Vargas, an iconic Ranchera singer recognized for defying gender and sexuality norms in a very macho 1950s Mexico.
Her compelling life story, Chavela, opened the Women Make Waves Film Festival (台灣國際女性影展) Friday last week with a second screening set for Saturday. The biopic encompasses all the themes and issues important to the festival: defiance of patriarchal social norms, fluidity of gender and sexuality, exploration of relationships, feminism and the celebration of womanhood.
Photo courtesy of Women Make Waves
The festival, which runs until Oct. 22, features more than 70 films from international and local filmmakers, all celebrating this year’s theme: “Rave in Peace,” which represents the spirit of taking challenges as opportunities.
“The festival’s goal is to present different ways for women to deal with difficulties by means of embracing and accompanying, humor and creativity, thoughtfulness and wisdom, and above all, perseverance to show professionalism in filmmaking,” festival director Pecha Lo (羅珮嘉) says.
The festival features numerous categories that are arranged by issues such as female roles in long-term care relationships or genres such as experimental cinema.
Taiwanese-American director Ann Hu’s Cake is featured in the festival’s Xposed: Eroticism as Subversion category — which explores erotica and pornography in relation to feminist and queer perspectives. Hu’s film depicts the events that occur after a bisexual woman surprises her husband with a female sex robot.
“The film... addresses how Asian women are often objectified and fetishized [in America] and the swapping of gender roles,” Hu says, noting that she definitely wanted to talk about sexuality.
“I find it very important to have these type of events for female directors to have their own space,” Georgian film director Elene Naveriani says.
Her movie, I Am Truly a Drop of Sun on Earth, can be found in the experiemental cinema category A Perfect Shot for its black-and-white aesthetic and Italian Neorealist influences.
It follows April, a Georgian sex worker in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and her interactions with Dije, a young Nigerian immigrant wandering the same city. Filmed in black and white, this movie explores the connection between Nigerian immigrants and Georgian sex workers and how two seemingly contrasting groups can find common ground.
Other categories include The Entangled Dance, Beyond Queerness, There’s Always a Woman, shorts and animations, as well as the festival’s Taiwan Competition, which includes 17 films selected from more than 100 entries by local female directors.
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