What is the “Asian Lesbian Film and Video Festival” (ALFF)

The Asian Lesbian Film Festival will be held in Taiwan August 5-10, 2005.ALFF is organized by Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan with programming support from Institute for Tongzhi Studies, City University of New York and Spectra Studio for Asian Queer Media.It showcases films and videos primarily made by girls and women in Asia about their lesbian / lazi / lala / tongzhi / t / po / queer lives and desires. It seeks to build a forum for the Taiwanese lesbian and queer communities to discuss issues including visibility, media representation, gender and sexuality, relationships among women, family and community, violence and social justice. Works related to/about Asian lesbians not made by women and/or not made in Asia will also be included as reference for discussion.

ALFF recognizes that the circulation of lesbian and queer media representation has been EuroAmerica-centered, largely following in the steps of dominant genres of media (film, video, etc) and knowledge production (books, academic publications, etc), with local productions aiming mostly at a local market, and “international” meaning Euro-American works aiming at a “global market.”

At the same time, ALFF notes the fact that the there has been a prolific body of work made by and/or about lesbians in Asia, especially by young lesbians and queers, in the past few years.However, most of these works are shown and circulated outside Asia, primarily in Film Festivals in Europe and North America. This is again in great part due to problems of access and resources, with the latter largely concentrated in areas of economic and geo-political as well as historical dominance. This tendency, for (especially marginal) cultural works to be shown in mostly Euro-American metropolitan circuits is aggravated by difficulties of language and historical-cultural translation in even neighboring states in “peripheral” regions. Thus for example, the translation from Tagalog (Philippines) into Taiwan Chinese is more difficult despite geographical proximity and colonial historical affinities than say, the translation from Tagalog into American English.

The dissemination of Asian cultural works, especially works produced by and about marginal women sexual subjects, that used to be primarily vectored toward a Euro-American circuit, has begun changing in the past few years. These changes have come about on two levels. On the one hand, there has been quickened flows of cultural products (films, television dramas, music industry) between and among especially north-east Asian sites (Seoul, Fukuoka, Manila, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China), but covering the entire inter-Asian region. On another level, critical discourses and activist groups have become increasingly aware of the urgent necessity for inter-Asian dialogues and comparative perspectives in deepened recognition of shared historical trajectories, complicated colonial legacies and differently accelerated modernities, all of which have led to sexual-political issues and social-historical dilemmas that demand inter-regional sharing of knowledge, discussions and strategies. These critical dialogues and comparative perspectives are needed in order to combat the entrenchment of old “catching up” mentalities (progressivist catching up discourse with Euro-America as imagined model modern states) as well as to produce alternative visions and activist articulations of the possibilities and difficulties as envisioned in and from different yet neighboring Asian sites with comparable historical-cultural, colonial and socio-economic legacies.

ALFF seeks to initiate dialogue around media representations of and by lesbians/lazi/lala/tongzhi/t/po/queer persons in an inter-Asian context so that communities within Asia could share images and stories made in their own region by and about Asians in Asian societies. The deepening enculturation of visual media in the Asian region, increasing access to film and video on the part of a younger generation of lesbian and queer film and video artists, and the relative ease and usefulness of film and video representations in facilitating cross-cultural and linguistic, cross-generation and class, inter and intra-regional dialogues propel this project. ALFF taps on the social accessibility of media representation and its ability to reach wide and diverse audiences. We hope to use this opportunity to expand and enrich our communities in ways that could not be done otherwise.

We have worked hard to have almost all the films and videos shown in ALFF subtitled in both Chinese and English. After these works are shown in Taiwan, they could then travel to Hong Kong, as well as other cities in China and other parts of Asia. On one level, the festival tour becomes a cumulative effort for pan-Chinese communities to share different resources available in different Chinese-speaking locales. It could also become a precious opportunity for these communities to compare their cultural and social differences despite their sharing of the “same” language. Through such cross-cultural meetings and discussions via media representations, the different possibilities and limitations which give rise to different construction of gender and sexual identities in these diverse communities could then begin to be foregrounded and discussed. The ALFF seeks to participate in the larger cultural activist turn toward supporting and fostering inter-Asian on the ground critical perspectives and social movements.

G/SRAT

G/SRAT is historically an offshoot of the vibrant Taiwan women’s movement of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, it is also a function of deepening awareness of both the diversities and differences between and among lesbians, gays and transgender peoples, as well as the crucial political need for working out these differences, political and personal, within a group that seeks inclusiveness among the sexually minor and stigmatized.

We believe that “gender” encompasses a wide and complex range of social meanings. Our work on the writing of cultural history and the making of new discourses aims to break the binary paradigm of “either men or women” and the hegemony of heterosexuality. This category of our work not only seeks to communicate with the dominant and build coalitions with other social movements, but also tries to learn from and respect the differences between marginalized groups in the community.

Thus, as of 1999, G/SRAT began to foster recognition of differences within the community, initiating discussions of “T/Po” [butch/femme] and transgender issues and other issues that are less well accepted or understood by the LGBT community. To enrich our understanding of multi-faceted nature of the LGBT community, G/SRAT started in 2002 doing extensive fieldwork and making documentaries, trying to connect the real life experiences of people with the movement.

To remind mainstream society of the existence of gays and lesbians and in the history of the Red Hall Theater, and gay contributions to the cultural and historical development of society, G/SRAT and other LGBT groups did a cha cha performance in December 2003 reminiscent of gay culture in the 60s at the premiere of “Crystal Boys” (the gay classic of the 1970’s in Taiwan that has both been filmed and more recently made into an acclaimed drama series aired on Public Television). We have also continuously (into the present) held lesbian cultural events and workshops, so as to mobilize lesbian participation in community and movement, as well as heightening lesbian visibility in the social.

We believe that, as an isolated individual, a woman and sexual minority can easily be seen as helpless and powerless. Only through organization and training can the individual learn to empower herself and develop the cohesiveness of the community, which is the most forceful, effective and practical strategy against the discrimination and injustice that an individual faces in society. G/SRAT runs training camps for gender and sexuality rights activists on a regular basis. G/SRAT helped found various gay and lesbian and transgender groups and facilitated their development toward movement-oriented groups. G/SRAT also holds a variety of conferences on women’s and LGBT cultural events and issues that are open to the general public. G/SRAT also founded the LGBT News Agency which translates and presents LGBT news from around the world from a political perspective to a Chinese speaking audience.

………………… Contact Info …………………

Tel: (886-2) 8251-0105
Fax: (886-2) 8251-0106
Email: alff2005@gsrat.net