There are a number of queer shorts sprinkled throughout the Reel Asian Film Festival.
One of the better ones is a quirky piece called Tilted from Canadian filmmaker Kai Ling Xue. A fearless heroine finds herself suffering from an off-kilter malady, tiltedness, which enervates the medical community leaving her family bewildered and defensive.
Kai narrates the piece as if it were an action-packed newsreel; her accented voice jarring humorously with old home movies of a white family. Titled seems to be poking fun – gently – at the genre of coming out documentaries that demand self- and social acceptance (at 5pm on Sat, Nov 29 in the Gaps, Skirmishes And Filial Piety program at the NFB).
One of the weaker festival offerings is Home by Toronto’s Matthew Jumahat. The nine-minute piece features brief interviews with three Singaporeans studying in Toronto. Marred by bad sound recording and editing, this sophomoric documentary includes a brief discussion of the differences between Canadian and Singaporean attitudes towards homosexuality through the commentary of one of the students, Wesley Godden (screens in the Sun, Nov 30 Wherever You Are program with Banana Boy).
Ho Tam’s She Was Cuba is an evocative look at the internal exile of grief. Using an intriguing mix of found travelogue footage and clips from movies, including the 1960s masterpiece I Am Cuba, the 16-minute film imagines a life and homecoming for an anonymous young Cuban woman found dead in Ottawa. Jon Baturin’s listless half of the narration somewhat undermines the work’s lovely poetic rhythm (7pm on Thu, Nov 27, Fresh From Ontario program, Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave).
* Tickets for most Reel Asian screenings are $8. For more info, call (416) 703-9333 or visit Reelasian.com.
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