Late-summer bonanza of relevant films

For moviegoers unperturbed by a crowded September, a pair of independent festivals is stepping into the brainy cinema void between blockbuster and awards seasons. The 28th Hong Kong Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (HKLGFF, Sept 9-24) followed by an adjunct of Robert Redford's indie-focused Sundance Film Festival (Sept 21-Oct 1) are rolling out a slew of relevant films. Go grab them before they vanish into thin air.

HKLGFF is turning the spotlight on hard-won victories and an evolving LGBT culture. The French chapter of the confrontational direct action activists of ACT UP star in this year's Cannes Grand Prix-winner 120 Beats Per Minute. The HKLGFF opener, about ACT UP's demands for government action at the height of the emerging AIDS crisis, is by turns elegiac, tragic, infuriating and as urgent as ever, given Hong Kong's shameful status as one of the few developed locations in the world with rising HIV infections. Robert Campillo's 120 Beats should be required viewing for everyone. Other strong entries from around the globe this year include Naoko Ogigami's Close-Knit, about a Japanese transgender woman, her accepting boyfriend, his neglected niece, and the family they form. Ogigami manages the kind of sensitive examination of trans life uncharacteristic of Japanese cinema. It's a refreshing change of pace that nonetheless avoids unrealistic optimism. Dome Karukoski's Touko Laaksonen biopic tracks the Finnish artist's life from post-war Helsinki to becoming a gay icon and beacon of LGBT civil rights in Tom of Finland.

As Hong Kong legislators demand that High Court rulings on same sex spousal benefits be reversed and the SAR resists anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT rights, it comes as no surprise Hong Kong is underrepresented among a strong international line-up that includes the USA (musical Hello Again), Thailand, Philippines, South Africa and Brazil (check out Body Electric) among others. However, there are short films from the city aplenty. Lydia Han's Out of Place juxtaposes Hong Kong businessman Bobbie Huthart's transition with Mr. C's trailblazing anti-discrimination court case in Guizhou. Mei Li-ying examines an 11-year-old's reaction to her mother's girlfriend in Cocoon. And in Losing Sight of a Longed Place (Shek Ka-chun, Wong Chun-long and Wong Tsz-ying) a man fighting for his rights puts his own life under the spotlight.

Though Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong opens with attending director David Lowery's high-profile A Ghost Story, about a dead man (Casey Affleck) who returns home to watch his wife and his life slipping away, it's certainly not the only thing worth checking out from among this year's 12 feature films and panel discussions. At the top of the list should be Sicario writer Taylor Sheridan's second directorial effort, the sparse winter western Wind River. Yes, it's nearly a carbon copy of his Texas-Mexico drug trade thriller, but this time Sheridan heads to the snowy wilds of Wyoming for a murder mystery set against bleak reservation life. A stellar Native American cast lends the film the kind of authenticity that bears out #OscarSoWhite. Elsewhere, and along similarly authentic lines, in 1992, two Korean-American brothers trying to keep their father's store in business strike up a friendship with a black girl in the neighborhood. Then the Rodney King verdict happens. Justin Chon's Gook couldn't be more timely in tackling the unspoken racial tensions that simmer among Los Angeles' diverse communities.

"A Sundance hit" can be the kiss of death, but the festival has always done well by its documentaries, and both STEP and City of Ghosts are the clear winners of the 2017 event. Matthew Heineman's City of Ghosts tracks the ideological fight waged by a group of citizen journalists who have fearlessly taken on ISIS after their Raqqa home was seized in 2014. Arguably the most clear-eyed examination of the ongoing war in Syria yet, its unflinching condemnation of Western complicity is, hopefully, galvanizing. Equally inspirational for other reasons, Amanda Lipitz's STEP enters the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women and follows three seniors on the step dance team in the school's first graduating class. It's just the kind of feel-good reality we could use more of in these times.

(HK Edition 08/25/2017 page10)