The Center for Asian American Media is pleased to showcase LGBTQ+ works as part of CAAMFest 2021. With a broad spectrum of themes, these projects convey the multifaceted intersections of sexuality and identity.

Showcases and features include:

HAPPY TOGETHER, directed by Wong Kar-Wai
Saturday, May 15, 6:30 p.m. at FORT MASON FLIX
In this seminal and gorgeous film, Ho Po-Wing (Leslie Cheung) and Lai Yiu-Fai (Tony Leung) are lovers who fight to keep their relationship together.

SEE YOU THEN, directed by Mari Walker
Friday, May 22, 7:00 p.m. on CAAMFest.com
Filmmaker Mari Walker masterfully directs this grounded and touching story of two individuals, who have felt pain in the past. Actors Pooya Mohseni and CAAMFest favorite Lynn Chen showcase their talent with two outstanding and brave performances.
Preceded by F1-100, directed by Emory Chao Johnson
Art, animation, archival footage, and digital video are interwoven in this transnational meditation through time and space of an international art student carrying a heavy burden.

SPOTLIGHT: MARGARET CHO
IN CONVERSATION WITH MARGARET CHO AND PREMIERE OF KOREATOWN GHOST STORY
Sunday, May 16, 4:00 p.m. on CAAMFest.com
A live conversation with Spotlight Honoree Margaret Cho who stars and produced KOREATOWN GHOST STORY. Filmmaker duo Minsun Park and Teddy Tenenbaum will also participate.

CLOSING NIGHT PARTY: “FOLX” DANCE PARTY WITH H.P. MENDOZA
Sunday, May 23, 7:00pm on CAAMFest.com
This thrilling conclusion of CAAMFest includes the world premiere of FOLX, H.P.’s new music album featuring Lex the Lexicon and Anna Ishida (I AM A GHOST). In a time of anxiety, join us as we come together to celebrate, laugh and dance the night away.

Shorts and Shorts Programs with LGBTQ+ themes:
OUT/HERE
CAAMFest’s OUT/HERE shorts program has been a staple of our festival for over a decade now. In this program, we showcase and celebrate the unique and bold stories from the LGBTQ+ diverse communities. From lesbian vampires to a gay relationship in turmoil, OUT/HERE is a real treasure of stories and storytellers.
DUET, directed by Shae Xu In this sensual and dream-like film, an unspoken romance inevitably resurfaces when a high school music teacher meets an old colleague again and decides to perform together for the first time as piano duet partners after they’ve long since drifted apart from each other.
SUMMERWINTERSUMMER, directed by Thy Tran Struggling to deal with Martin’s disappearance, Duy resorts to anonymous hook-ups to escape the emptiness.
THE LEAF, directed by William J. Zang THE LEAF is a personal, poetic, documentary film about Director Will J. Zang’s experience as both a filmmaker and a gay immigrant during this pandemic.
LOVE X BITES, directed by M. Noe, Yupar Momo During Covid19 outbreak, two women enter the quarantine at a hotel and share a room.
CLUB QUARANTINE, directed by Aurora Brachman Every night during the Covid-19 lockdown, hundreds of people from around the world gather in a massive queer dance party known as ‘Club Quarantine’.
DRIVING WITH THE TOP DOWN, directed by Edward Gunawan A touching film by filmmaker Edward Gunawan explores his family’s intergenerational trauma and intersectional struggles as a queer Chinese Indonesian in this intimately personal video essay.
HOW TO DIE YOUNG IN MANILA, directed by Petersen Vargas (DON’T SCREAM Shorts Program)  In this evocative, dream-like story a teenage boy follows a group of young hustlers, thinking one of them may be the anonymous hook-up he has arranged to meet for the night.
SYNCHRONIZED, directed by Corinne Manabat Cueva (SELF | PORTRAIT Shorts Program) An experimental documentary short that embraces 5 women of color as they collectively reflect about their experiences living and thriving in Oakland.
SWINGIN’, directed by Shang-Sing Guo (DIRECT TO TAIWAN Shorts Program) When sixth-grader boy Qiu is bullied in school for having gay dads, his stepfather Howard, a flamboyant Jazz trumpet player, must confront his own nightmares of childhood bullying before he can provide his son a feeling of security.

Additional LGBTQ+ Filmmakers include:
BREATHE (HINGA) by Sammay Dizon (HE(ART)BEATS Shorts Program) A performance ritual film and time capsule honoring the sacred grief, life force, and resiliency of the Bay Area Pilipinx community during COVID-19.
TO LIVE HERE (sống ở đây) directed by Melanie Ho (WE LIVE HERE Shorts Program) Exploring the intimacy of the mundane, sống ở đây | TO LIVE HERE focuses on the lives of Vietnamese shrimpers and elderly farmers in New Orleans, understanding the reverberations of the past, present in day to day labor.
For more information and to purchase tickets for CAAMFest, please visit www.caamfest.com.

About CAAMFest
CAAMFest, formerly the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), celebrates the world’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asian film, food, and music programs.

About CAAM
For 40 years, the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) has been dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. As a nonprofit organization, CAAM funds, produces, distributes, and exhibits works in film, television, and digital media. For more information about CAAM, please visit www.CAAMedia.org.