When the World is Stuck, Queer Stories Open a Window
Written by Cheng Fan-Ting
Translated by Mu Shi-Jie
In 2026, the fourth global coral bleaching event continues to unfold, extreme weather intensifies, and the WMO releases a report on the strong El Niño event in July. At the same time, although COVID-19 has gradually become part of everyday life, it still resurfaces from time to time, evoking the traumatic memories etched deeply into the collective memory six years ago. Geopolitical conflicts, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, Iran’s war with Israel and the United States, the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Sudanese civil war, the Myanmar civil war, and so on, show no signs of abating but have instead grown increasingly intense, entangling more with political and economic interests. But also at this peculiar moment, technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace, pushing disinformation and fake news into a more ambiguous and subtle state. Therefore, under this indescribable contemporary situation, radical and extreme ideology keeps causing fierce debate; the LGBTQ+ issues have never cooled down, rather, have become increasingly intense.
With tensions running high, three major trends have emerged. First, the focus of the LGBTQ+ debate has gradually shifted from the binary divide over same-sex marriage toward a broader debate over transgender rights. Healthcare, sports, restroom design, prison placement, identity documents, and insurance payment have become key sites of contestation in everyday life. Second, the scope of criminal law is expanding, extending from the criminalization of personal conduct to the legalization of LGBTQ+-related information, organizations, educational content, rallies, and even identity. Thirdly, the conservative political forces oppressing LGBTQ+ rights are increasingly spilling beyond national borders. What were once isolated developments within individual countries have now rapidly evolved into transnational networks with organized structures and coordinated campaigning strategies. Those trends make clear that LGBTQ+ issues remain a crucial part of the contemporary public agenda. These debates have never been confined to gender alone but are deeply intertwined with ethnicity, religion, climate, political stance, and commercial interests.
Against this backdrop, WMWIFF’s program “Radical Bodies” becomes all the more urgent and invaluable.
This year the “Radical Bodies” program presents 13 extraordinary films, spanning from the 1980s to the present, bringing together works from Japan, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Morocco and so on. These terrific films offer the audience a glimpse into different regional filmmakers’ views on the avant-garde promotion and reflection of LGBTQ+ issues. Among them are two films centered on Barbara Hammer, the American feminist filmmaker and lesbian cinema pioneer: Audience and Barbara Forever. Audience is a 16mm short directed by Hammer herself; Barbara Forever is a documentary directed by 30-year-old filmmaker Brydie O’Connor that explores Hammer’s artistic life and career. Hammer herself is a cinematic legend. Her Dyketactics (1974), featuring what are regarded as some of the earliest lesbian sex scenes directed by a lesbian filmmaker, was groundbreaking in its time. Nitrate Kisses (1992) received numerous awards upon its release but was also condemned by conservative groups as pornographic and immoral, showing the film’s powerful impact and wide-reaching influence. Audience is a playful work in which Hammer turns the camera on herself and her audience. Simple and unadorned yet intimate in its approach, the film captures precious fleeting moments between the filmmaker and her audience. Recently awarded the Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, Barbara Forever uses Hammer’s own narration as a guiding thread, weaving together a wealth of precious footage of her life trajectory and queer vision. Particularly moving is the inclusion of footage of Hammer, visibly in poor health, yet still filled with a stubborn, irrepressible, and humorous vitality.
Also, from Mexico comes Mickey, directed by a Mexican filmmaker, Dano García, which intricately stitches digital archives from various media with live-action footage. A kaleidoscopic stream of consciousness drifts across the screen in a humorous and unsentimental way. The film delicately and poetically depicts the process of the protagonist’s decade-long gender journey of exploring and transitioning their gender. The other film, Apolo, co-directed by Brazilian directors Tainá Müller and Ísis Broken, also explores transgender issues. The film follows the transgender partners Lorenzo and Isis through their pregnancy and childbirth during COVID-19. The protagonists visit a local obstetrics and gynecology clinic for a consultation with their expectation of embracing a new life but are turned away because of their transgender identities. The excitement of bringing new life within institutional exclusion exactly echoes the urgent need to protect transgender rights today. Seemingly ordinary social systems can often become crucial sites of contestation where the dignity of an individual and their family lives are recognized.
In addition to the short films’ compilation program guest-curated by the Normal Screen, “Normal Screen: My Comrades,” this program also includes “Special Presentation: Meriem Bennani,” which focuses on an emerging Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani and presents three works that engage in dialogue with one another, 2 Lizards, Life on the CAPS – Trilogy, and Bouchra. 2 Lizards is co-directed with Orian Barki. Living in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic and feeling the radical change in everyday life, Bennani and Barki use animation to depict the strange and surreal realities of this “state of exception” in 2 Lizards. Transforming themselves into lizards, they engage in seemingly mundane conversation that give rise to profound philosophical debates, just like Didi and Gogo in Waiting For Godot (1953). Composed of eight extremely short videos, 2 Lizards quickly became popular upon its release resonating with audiences around the world who founded themselves in similar circumstances and felt less alone. Life on the CAPS – Trilogy, created between 2018 to 2022, Meriem Bennani interweaves digital media, documentary and fiction to create an imaginary world “CAPS.” Through audiovisual imagery that blends realism with the surreal, Life on the CAPS – Trilogy explores the anxiety and alienation produced by surveillance from the nation. Bouchra is the other film co-directed by Bennani and Barki, using semi-autobiographical animation to portray the life of filmmakers’ life. As a Moroccan lesbian filmmaker living in Brooklyn, the protagonist is caught between the bottleneck of creation and the search for emotional connection while trying to reconcile with her mother through phone call to Morocco. Together, these three films are deeply heartfelt and filled with the humor of the digital era, totally showcasing the remarkable talent of a new generation of directors.
WMWIFF’s “Radical Bodies” program boldly opens several windows onto the world. In an era where catastrophe, warfare, and algorithms are increasingly entangled, the world is becoming harder to make sense of. But for these brilliant films, confront the way violence permeates everyday life and actively present the agency of queer lives. These films capture intimate moments of people who continue to meet, fall in love, become pregnant, experience loss, have quarrels, joke around, and share their private thoughts with each other. It is these moments that the world still holds a radiant vision in which different forms of life can live together.
