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| Female students stand near a poster for the 22nd Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (HKLGFF) at a cinema in Hong Kong on Friday. The HKLGFF offers new work from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam and throwing a light on the challenges sexual minorities face around Asia. (AFP Photo/Aaron Tam) |
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Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (HKLGFF) opens Friday, offering new
work from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam and throwing a light on the challenges
sexual minorities face around Asia.
With more
than 30 full-length and short films on offer over two weeks, organisers said
the festival promised new insight into what it is like to be gay in some of the
world's most repressive societies.
Two weeks
after Malaysian police effectively outlawed an annual gay rights event, HKLGFF
organiser Joe Lam said Malaysia's first "queer film", entitled
"In the Bottle", would be one of the festival's highlights.
Vietnam's
first gay film, "Lost in Paradise", and Thailand's first lesbian
film, "Yes Or No", were chosen to open the event as a way of
showcasing the work of little-known Asian filmmakers, he said.
"It's
quite good to see these countries starting to do gay movies. For their first
movies they're not bad, so we decided to show them on the opening night,"
he told AFP.
"It
shows they are changing and the world is changing, even in Muslim
countries."
Homosexuality
remains a taboo subject in Muslim-majority Malaysia, where sodomy is punishable
by up to 20 years in prison.
Last month,
members of the conservative opposition Islamic party PAS called for a November
concert by British superstar Elton John to be banned on grounds that the openly
gay singer promotes "hedonism" and would corrupt Muslims.
Two
Malaysian states are considering passing laws that could punish gay Muslims and
gay rights supporters with prison sentences.
Last year a
gay and lesbian film festival in Indonesia, the world's most populous
Muslim-majority country, went ahead despite protests from hardline Islamist
groups who threatened to attack participating cinemas.
Homosexuals
face severe corporal punishment under Islamic by-laws in some parts of
Indonesia.
Lam said
that by highlighting the work of gay and lesbian artists from countries like
Malaysia, the festival illustrated minority cultures that are forced
underground.
"It's
good for the community, so that people know they exist," he said.
The HKLGFF
is in its 22nd year and Lam said it had never experienced significant problems,
even though local mainstream media and Cantonese celebrities generally shunned
the event.
"If
the famous celebrities don't come, the mainstream media aren't
interested," he said.
"The
entertainment industry in Hong Kong is quite backward. Even though we know some
gay actors who haven't come out, they don't want to come," he said.
AFP
About the Challenges of Being a Gay Man – Oct 23, 2010 (Saint Germain channelled by Alexandra Mahlimay and Dan Bennack) - “You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.”
"The Akashic System" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version) New !
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