Reel Queer Film Festival Will Feature Drama, Comedy

“52 Tuesdays” is one of six films that will be featured in the Reel Queer Film Festival, running April 3-5 in Shemin Auditorium.

The 2015 Reel Queer Film Festival, organized by Open Doors—the University’s graduate LGBTQA organization—will be held April 3-5 in Shemin Auditorium.

The film festival was started almost a decade ago to showcase the plight and progress of queer and trans* identities across the globe. Given the growing strength of the voice of LGBTQA communities the world over and the eventual changes in technology, the festival is as much a platform to tell important, moving and relevant stories as it is about showcasing the progress in cinema and storytelling.

The festival kicks off with a small opening ceremony at 5 p.m. Friday, April 3, and will end with a small closing ceremony at 6 p.m. Sunday, April 5. Two of the screenings will be followed by Q&A sessions with the film directors—Eric Schaeffer (“Boy Meets Girl”) on April 3 and Debalina Majumdar (“And the unclaimed”) on April 4.

This year’s festival includes six films, haling from such places as Australia, Brazil and India:

• “Boy Meets Girl” is a tender, poignant, sexy, romantic coming of age romantic comedy about three 20-somethings living in Kentucky: Robby, Ricky, a gorgeous transgender girl, and Francesca, a beautiful young debutante waiting for her Marine fiancé to return from the war.
• In a remote village in India, two girls—Swapna and Sucheta—loved each other so much that felt they had to kill themselves; and the village hated them so much that they were burned as unclaimed bodies. One of them had left a five-page note behind, telling their story of love and loathing and asking their parents to cremate them together. The parents rejected their wish and the unclaimed bodies were disposed of by the police, unattended, uncared for. Sutanuka, Swarup, Banani and Sumita, four people from the city, get to read the note in the documentary “And the Unclaimed.” More stories and moments emerge … of love and hatred, of various kinds.
• In “52 Tuesdays,” 16-year-old Billie’s reluctant path to independence is accelerated when her mother reveals plans for gender transition and their time together becomes limited to Tuesday afternoons. Filmed over the course of a year, once a week, every week—only on Tuesdays—these unique filmmaking rules bring a rare authenticity to this emotionally charged story of desire, responsibility and transformation.
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  “And the unclaimed” is a documentary set in India.

  Shirin is struggling to become an ideal Persian daughter, politically correct bisexual and hip young Brooklynite but fails miserably in her attempt at all identities. Being without a cliché to hold onto can be a lonely experience according to “Appropriate Behavior.”

• In contemporary London, a mother (played by Asian cinema’s martial arts legend Cheng Pei Pei) is grieving the untimely death of her son. The mother’s fragile world is suddenly disrupted by the presence of a stranger (Ben Whishaw), whose attempts to communicate are first met with rejection and distrust. Although they don’t share a common language, Vann (Naomi Christie), a young translator hired by Richard, helps piece together the tender memories of the man they both loved, and the two strangers gradually learn to develop a bond with each other in “Lilting.”
• Leo is a blind teenager who’s fed up with his overprotective mother and the bullies at school. Set against the music of Belle and Sebastian, Daniel Ribeiro’s coming of age tale, “The Way He Looks” is a fun and tender story about friendship and the complications of young love.

These films promise to move the audience to tears and laughter alike, all the while speaking about lives that matter and stories that showcase a range of real emotions. All films are captioned and are free and open to the public. For more information or additional needs see http://rqff.info, or contact Aishik Barua (abarua@syr.edu) or Nupur Gokhale (ngokhale@syr.edu).