SAAFF 2017 LGBTQ In Focus (Shorts)

Co-presented by Three Dollar Bill Cinema and Asian Adult Adoptees of Washington COMING FULL CIRCLE: THE JOURNEY OF A TRANSGENDERED KOREAN ADOPTEE LARRY TUNG / SHORTS / UNITED STATES / 2016 / DOCUMENTARY / 24 MINS What is it like to go "back" to a country you never knew? Pauline Park was born into a poor family in post-war Korea. Adopted by white American parents, she left Korea as a 7-month old baby boy and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 54 years later, she embarked on a journey of discovering and connecting to her past, where her birth name literally means "the second son." This film follows Pauline as she visited Korea for the first time after she left. GAYSIANS VICKY DU / SHORTS / UNITED STATES / 2016 / DOCUMENTARY / 12 MINS Five queer and trans Asian Americans from New York City explore their relationships with their family and culture in this illuminating patchwork documentary. GIRLS LIKE GIRLS – HAYLEY KIYOKO HAYLEY KIYOKO, AUSTIN WINCHELL / MUSIC VIDEOS / UNITED STATES / 2015 / MUSIC VIDEO / 5 MINS Music video for Girls Like Girls performed by Hayley Kiyoko. NƯỚC QUYEN NGUYEN-LE / SHORTS / UNITED STATES / 2016 / DRAMA / 5 MINS Set in the California Drought, Nước (Water/Homeland) is an experimental narrative short film about a queer Vietnamese American teen who attempts to piece together and understand their mom's experience as a Vietnam War refugee. The journey pulls us into a fantastical series of iconic historical photographs, ultimately highlighting the complexity of understanding another's experiences completely and instead opening up possibilities for building relationships based on being present and co-existence. SEPARAR MAINAK DHAR / SHORTS / UNITED STATES / 2016 / DRAMA / 11 MINS Madelyn comes home to a dead relationship and a rare clean house. Isabel is excited to see her after cleaning the apartment all day. Madelyn takes a big glass of wine a decides to break-up. Initially taken aback, Isabel takes it well. They start drinking and things go south. TWO-SIDED RIDE JASON KARMAN / SHORTS / CANADA / 2016 / COMEDY / 9 MINS Alex, a gay hopeless romantic, drives for a ride-booking company in hopes of a love connection in the big city. His trials and tribulations lead him to lose his way until fate takes over. Queer Transnational Love in the time of Social Media and Globalization ADRIAN ALARILLA / SHORTS / USA / 2017 / DOCUMENTARY / 20 MINS In this video study, the filmmaker analyzes the possibilities and unsustainability of queer, transnational love as hybridized Filipino/American subjects. Using found footage, he retraces the story of his love with the research subject in an effort to work through the trauma of ending a relationship, all the while revealing the larger socio-political structures in place that are keeping them from one another.