Category: Videos

I’m humbled and honored that my work has been included in the following festivals this fall. I wish I could attend them all.

Transstellar Film Festival  – World Premiere
28 September 2019, 9:15 PM  Cinema Detroit, Detroit, MI, USA
Experimental Shorts
Intrinsic Moral Evil, Dir: Harm Weistra
My Crazy Boxers, Dir: krissy mahan
Another Woman’s Scent, Dirs: Angie West, Jackie Nunns
Stella Erratica, Dir: Ben Barton
Reality Fragment 160921, Dir: Jasmine Lin, April Lin
Broken Doll, Dir: Gaspar Aguirre, Román Sovrano

Respect Belfast Human Rights Film Festival
6 October 2019,  4PM- 6 pm AN CULTÚRLANN, Belfast, Northern Counties of the Republic of Ireland
Cultúrlann Mc Adam Ó Fiaich is an Irish language, arts and cultural centre located at the heart of West Belfast on the Falls Road.
Program 3:
NATION YOUR NATION Director: Frederick Kelly Duration: 7mn
Duration: 7mn
A woman undertakes the ‘Life in the UK Test’. Through her eyes, ‘Nation Your Nation’ questions the means by which nation states determine people’s identities and futures.
ACAIACA Director: Wagner Cinelli Duration: 7mn
Acaiaca is based on a legend about a sacred cedar that was chopped down by the Portuguese, which caused the destruction of the nearby Puri Indian tribe in just one night. The Legend of Acaiaca was portrayed in the novel Acayaca 1729, by 19th Century Brazilian writer Joaquim Felicio dos Santos. The song was recorded in April/2017 by Urca Bossa Jazz, and it is one of the last works of percussionist Laudir de Oliveira
MAMA MAMA Director: EDUARDO VIEITEZ Duration: 9mnA
Syrian refugee girl trying to stay alive and make her way out finding a new home in a massive exodus under the Syrian civil war.
COLD FISH Director: David Hay Duration: 11mn
An old man wants to commit suicide but a young boy stops him. Notbecause he wants to save him butbecause he wants him to do the deed.
CRESCENT Director: Edward Heredia Duration: 7mn Moving into their new home, CelinaSmith struggles to cope with her daily life. As her concept of time becomes elusive, she begins to fear for hersanity. Her husband, Patrick Smith, tries to support her through prescribed medication but Celina continues to manically believe that itis the clocks in the house that are controlling her. After struggling to find proof, she manages to create a sundial in the garden and discovers herhusband’s controlling ways.
I AM/YALINI DREAM Director: YaliniDream and Krissy Mahan, 2019, 2 min, USA. Open captioned version available.
YaliniDream — Lankan Tamil Blood, Manchester-Born, Texas-Bred and Brooklyn-Brewed, performs a poem of refugee/migrant love for self and the world, through dance and a hiphop beat. Directors:
I AM SORRY Director: Kamil Olejnik Duration: 3mn To complete the path that leads to his redemption, a condemned man writes a letter of forgiveness. By offering this letter to his children, he fulfills his most cherished desire to break the cycle of violence that destroys his family from generation to generation.
THEY/THEM Director: Bo Beaufill Duration: 19mn Ash has always been very good with their words, however recently theyhaven’t been able to express themself. They realise that not everything is in blue and pink as they struggle to findtheir gender identity in a world resistant to change.
INFERNO Director: Cristiano Gazzarrini Duration: 4mn
In una cucina di un appartamento qualunque, un uomo è intento a tagliare un pezzo di carne. In camera da letto una donna giace sul letto. I suoni e i rumori di una violenta aggressione di un uomo ai danni di una donna echeggiano nell’ambiente.
A PAIN OF THE COLOUR HOMELAND Director: Nasim Ostovar Duration: 7mnRezvan with 30 years of age has to sew at home to earn money for her husband Hamid and their son Arman. Hamid just yells, breaks and beats Rezvan and Arman. what should Rezvan do? they say Hamid is crazy?
I SOGNI SOSPESI Director: Manuela Tempesta Duration: 12mn Marlène is a beautiful and restless French artist who expresses her creative talent by painting, with her naked body, a white canvas hanging in a cottage. The girl has fled her home country with her sister Sophie, who tries to stay close to her and supports her day after day. Their past is marked by a terrible secret, an event happened a long time before which deeply marked them, forcing them to flee to Italy.
HOME Director: Benjamin Harris Duration: 19mn
When a lonely young girl meets a local farmhand claiming to be held captive, can she help him or will his secret keep them both prisoner?

Scottish Queer International Film Festival, Glasgow, UK
3 October 2019, 3:00 pm – 4:10 pm, Center for Contemporary Arts
I Am/YaliniDream  (2m) Dir: YaliniDream, Krissy Mahan, Country: USA, Year: 2019, Language/s: English
Screening with:
tenderfluid (3m) Dir: Liberty Antonia Sadler, Country: UK, Year: 2019, Language/s: English
Ponyboi (19m). Dir: River Gallo, Sade Clacken Joseph, Country: USA, Year: 2019, Language/s: English
The Wind on your Skin (18m). Dir: Naomi Beukes, Country: Namibia, Year: 2018, Language/s: English
Eyes (5m). Dir: Lily Ash Sakula, Country: UK, Year: 2019, Language/s: English
BLACKN3SS (22m). Dir: Diego Paulino, Country: Brazil, Year: 2018, Language/s: Portuguese
My Spine is a Beautiful Sea Monster (2m). Dir: Theresa Heath-Ellul, Country: UK, Year: 2019, Language/s: English

4 October 2019, 12.30 pm – 2:30 pm, CCA Theatre
My Crazy Boxers
See Me Proud presents: Mental Health Shorts
We know that mental health issues disproportionately affect LGBTQIA+ individuals and communities, who often experience difficulties in accessing support. To create space for discussion and representation of these topics, we’ve curated a collection of insightful and powerful shorts in partnership with See Me Proud. Topics covered include depression, anxiety, loneliness, irrational thoughts, living with bipolar disorder, medication, and queerphobia encountered whilst obtaining treatment. The films incorporate a diversity of identities and styles, including animation, experimental, documentary, and sci-fi.Followed by a discussion on themes raised in the films with See Me Proud.With refreshments sponsored by Clever Kombucha.

July 13, 2019 – British Museum , London
YaliniDream and my collaborative film “I Am/YaliniDream” will be shown at QueerAsia, in a program curated by CINEMQ called ‘Dreams + Nightscapes’ at the British Museum.
‘Dreams + Nightscapes’ :  We find each other in dreams. In cinemas and streets, in half-forgotten spaces, eyes bright and shadow-boxed as cheeks run black with rain. Queer visions in the dark. CINEMQ presents a selection of short films from across Asia exploring dream, desire, and nightscapes.

The fourth QueerAsia annual activities will take place this year from 17 June to22 July, featuring our Film Festival running from 17 June-22 July, our Art Exhibition running from 13-17 July, and the first ever Summer Programme from 15-18 July. All events are free to attend including open events at The Summer Programme in the evenings of 15, 17, and 18 July at University of Westminster, King’s College London, and SOAS University of London respectively.

Queer Asia is a network and platform for collaboration and research on LGBTQI+ issues in Asia. The aim of our annual activities are to bring together activists, artists, academics and film-makers from various parts of Asia on a common platform and interrogate latest developments on LGBTQI+ rights and culture in the region.

Our third annual Film Festival this year is held in collaboration with CINEMQ. Our screenings will be held on 17 June and from 11-22 July at the British Museum, SOAS University of London, King’s College London, and the University of Warwick. Selected films this year span 24 countries, including Lebanon, Malaysia, South Korea, Iran, Taiwan, Philippines, Russian Federation, India, China, Brunei, Japan, and Azerbaijan. The schedule is available online.

Our second annual Art Exhibition titled ‘The Liminal’ will be held at SOAS University of London and the British Museum on 15-17 July with community events and artists’ and artivism talks and the main exhibition held from 15-17 July at SOAS University of London. Further details about the exhibition and a line-up of our artists can be found online.

The films:

The Tyger [Tropical Malady edit]
Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Thailand
A short video essay on man and nature.

They Won’t Let A Dream Come True
Dir. Shumaila Kanwal
PakistThe world outside / Always wants some reason / For something new / For a dream to come true.

Aren’t We Here For Each Other
Dir. Gilb Baldoza
Philippines
Romance endures violence as a couple celebrates their anniversary against the backdrop of Duterte’s war on drugs.

Things I Would Say To My Mom If Only I Were Brave Enough
Dir. James Allen Fajardo
Philippines
Filmmaker James Allen Fajardo recalls his childhood before his mother left him to work abroad, and all the things he wished he could have told her about his burgeoning sexuality.

Queer
Dir. Romi Kim
S. Korea
Whispers of queerness in a young woman’s coming out story, an intimate narrative that holds her first kiss, first love and feelings of exclusions. She navigates and explores both the negativity around the word ‘queer,’ and her struggle to identify within it.

I Dream / Yalani Dream
Dir. YaliniDream & Krissy Mahan
USA
Artist YaliniDream – Lankan Tamil Blood, Manchester-Born, Texas-Bred and Brooklyn-Brewed – performs a poem of refugee/migrant love for the self and the world, through dance and a hiphop beat.

Tofu
Dir. Sui-hin Mak
Hong Kong
An experimental montage.

The Mute
Dir. Pham Thien An
Vietnam
The night before her wedding, a woman seeks out her ex-girlfriend for the last time.

Do It Again
Dir. Hsin Hsuan Yeh
Taiwan
Not knowing who I am and what should I do, floating in the air, I am a bear in the mortal world. I always wander in the dead-end road, swinging back and forth between disgust and joy. When will I face my own desires without hating myself?

Care For You
Dir. OHYUNG
USA
Romance blossoms when two souls cross paths in a late-night diner. A tender and surreal meditation on expressions of love.

Make Up Your Own Mind
Dir. Miguel Badiola Borje
Hong Kong
How do we determine the value of others, who has the right to decide a person’s worth? Two dancers move through a desolate building in this short film dedicated to the Filipinos of Hong Kong.

Chromosome Sweetheart
Dir. Honami Yano
Japan
Running into your ex can trigger a flood of bittersweet memories, but the world brims with with new and complex ways to love.

Two Snakes
Dir. Kristin Li
Canada
An experimental animation and documentary about diasporic desires for foundational myths. Seeking a home in reclaiming ones’ ancestry and seeking a self in reappropriated narratives. What is found is an identity, one that is fragmented, but open.

Amateur Dramatics
Dir. Linnea Ritland
Canada
Two actors competing for the same role find truth in a moment of pretending.

One of the best things about this spring’s showings are that the films are being shown at events that are not specifically for queer audiences (Beyond Earth, Stony Brook University, PopUp Anthology, Indie Meme, Workers Unite Film Fest, Bechdel Film Festival and Splice Film Festival).  This gives me the opportunity to talk about accessibility, class, and queerness to a broader range of audiences, which is what I’ve always wanted to do.  One day I will show my movies at a sports bar!
Here is an updated listing of what’s showing where.

March 23, 2019
I DREAM/ YALINIDREAM was selected for the Beyond Earth Film Festival at Club Eco Vista New Town, Action Area II, Kolkata India.  This was the film’s World Premiere.

March 28, 2019
MY AUNT MAME will be shown at qFLIX Philadelphia on Thursday,  March 28,  7:30 PM  @  Connelly Auditorium.

April 5, 2019 I will be presenting some of my films at the 2019 Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Graduate Conference
“Asking for a Friend (of Dorothy): What to Expect When You’re Expecting The End of the World”.

April 7, 2019
My Aunt Mame will show at the Wicked Queer Film Festival at the Paramount Center in Boston, Mass. Here’s the trailer.

Friday, April 19
MY AUNT MAME will be shown in the Local Animation showcase at the PopUp Anthology held at ArtWorks in Trenton, NJ.

April 27, 2019
IndyMeme Film Festival in Austin, TX will host the US Premiere of the film version of I DREAM / YALINIDREAM, which was originally created for Sharon Bridgforth’s RIVER SEE theatrical installation. This event will be held at AFS Cinema in Austin.

May 11, 2019
FOUR BILLION REASONS will be shown at 16:45 at the Woodhouse Community Centre at the Leeds Queer Film Festival!
This festival initially had to be rescheduled, but the queers of Leeds are back to finish what they started. Relaunch Event!  “We’re really touched by all the love and support so can’t wait to spend four days in a cozy queer utopia at Woodhouse Community Centre.”

May 15, 2019
ALL IN A DAY’S WORK Thrilled to announce that the collaborative film made by Patricia Silva and me will be shown in the Workers Unite Film Festival, 5/15/19 at 4:00pm at the Cinema Village in Manhattan.  Our movie is screening with THE WASHING SOCIETY and DIVISION AVE.

May 30, 2019
MY AUNT MAME was selected for the (US) Inaugural Bechdel Fest in Akron, Ohio.
The Bechdel Film Fest, in partnership with the Nightlight Cinema and Akron Summit County Public Library, will feature high quality curated films that pass the “Bechdel Test,” which brings attention to gender inequality in film and fiction. THE BECHDEL TEST: AT LEAST TWO FEMALE CHARACTERS, WHO ARE GIVEN NAMES, TALK TO EACH OTHER ABOUT SOMETHING OTHER THAN A MAN OR BOY.

June 6, 2019
MY AUNT MAME will screen as part of QueerBee Film at the Curzon Soho. Get your tickets today!

June 20, 2019
MY AUNT MAME will be shown at 7:30pm in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in the 2019 Splice Film Festival.

June 22, 2019
I AM/YALINIDREAM will be shown at 7:30pm at the Cinema Noir in Brooklyn also as part of  the 2019 Splice Film Festival.