Film contributes to the exclusionary shape of dominant publics in the United States. The camera is frequently used to police communities and create propaganda for corporations and the state. This can entrain Asian Americans toward assimilation and reproducing US nationalism and cisheteronormativity. How might queer Asian diasporic communities use film to counter-surveil and betray the male and western gaze? How might film generate counterpublics around nonnormative Asian and Asian American narratives?

Spanning documentary, memoir, coming of age family drama, fantasy, and magical realism, these authentic and brave short films from queer emerging directors of the Asian diaspora (Pakistan, China and Vietnam) show how to hold each other and ourselves in ways that nations and institutions cannot. Told with a tender gaze and breathtaking visuals, these films explore healing in the aftermath of immigrant and refugee experiences, domestic and sexual violence, and homophobia. They lovingly and vibrantly unveil landscapes and emotionscapes rarely seen in mainstream Asian American film and unearth possibilities and practices of care, survival, chosen family and alternative futures.

Following the screenings will be a discussion with some of the filmmakers, moderated by Jess X. Snow and Chad Shomura.

Short films:

Retrieval by Fatimah Asghar
Will You Look At Me by Shuli Huang (Queer Palme at Cannes 2022)
Little Sky by Jess X. Snow
In Living Memory by Quyên Nguyen-Le