Events this Month

6PM: “EYELASHES” – INDONESIAN LGBTTQ DOCUMETARY about the life of transgender persons living in Aceh, Indonesia.

7PM: SHORT DOCUMENTARIES FROM MYANMAR features films produced by the Yangon Film School.

8PM: LOST IN PARADISE (VIETNAM, (2017, 103 min) conveys its characters’ lives in a remarkable range of tones, from the humor­ous to the absurd to the tragic. The film is set in Ho Chi Minh City and has two separate story lines. The first depicts a love triangle between three men, Khôi, Lam, and Đông, amidst a backdrop of male prostitution. The second concerns a mentally handicapped man, Cười, his friendship with Hạnh, a female prostitute, and his attempts to raise a duckling.

Free Entrance. English subs.

4PM: LGBITIQ & THE ARTS – PANEL / AFTERNOON TALK WITH ACTIVISTS AND ARTISTS (SIMULTANEOUS TRANSLATION – KHMER/ENGLISH). Our Panelists are HAM PIDOR (Influencer); ART OF DRAG Team (Journalists, Visual Artists); SOPHEAK SAO (Filmmaker); FELIX SEA (Singer), THYDA KUY (Activist), REAM CHAMROUEN/MC (TV Reporter).

6PM: CAMBODIAN LGBTIQ SHORT FILMS, presented by SUNFLOWER FILM ORG and filmmakers. 8PM: THE HANDMAIDEN (KOREA, 2016, 144 min) uses a Victorian crime novel as the loose inspiration for another visually sumptuous and absorbingly idiosyncratic outing from director Park Chan-wook.

Free Entrance. English subs.

6PM: LGBTIQ FILMS FROM PSE FILM SCHOOL – SACRIFICE by Thoung Sarith (7 min) and ANDA by Ros Sreynith (8 min). These films have been made inside the “Project Based Learning” program. Young filmmakers chose to address LGBTQIA+ issues on their own, without any influence from the teachers.Presented by PSE directors and facilitators.

7PM: POPPY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD REDUX (CAMBODIA, 2016, 93 min) is the first genuine LGBT-themed feature from Cambodia. Director Sok Visal and co-writers Richard Finn Johnston and Michael Hodgson (also co-scripter of the terrific Cambodian martial arts extravaganza “Jailbreak”) have found the right balance of comical cross-dressing shenanigans and heartfelt pro-tolerance drama. Presented by director Sok Visal.

Free Entrance. English subs.

Cambodian artist Sou Sophy was born in 1988 in Battambang. In 2004, she enrolled in a drawing class at the grass roots arts school “Phare Ponleu Selapak”, where she later became a teacher. Since 2008, she has exhibited her works in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Battambang and in Thailand. To earn a living, Sophy works as author, graphic designer and illustrator of children’s books. We invite you for Sophy’s first exhibition at Meta House. TRAP OF LIFE consists of 24 pieces made out of plywood, recycle papers and glue with a strong environmental message. The works focus on how humans impact the physical environment in many ways (such as pollution, burning fossil fuels, deforestation, poaching etc.). Changes like these have triggered climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water. Please be our guests! Light refreshments will be served.

The Asia South East – Short Film Festival is a seasonal film festival that gives international audiences from Asia, Europe, North America, and elsewhere who are living or traveling in the southeast of Asia, a chance to see a wide variety of great short films that are being produced from around the world: Hidari by Masashi Kawamura (Japan, 5:32 min)\; Just An Ordinary Dinner by Will Pak (USA, 2:50 min); War by Jordan Phoenix (USA, 4:19 min); These Colours Don’t Run by Difizckal Satriatama (Indonesia, 14:55 min); Into The Devigation by Zubaida Nila
(Malaysia, 2:25 min); Doll Factory by Junyoung Park (South Korea, 3:24 min); Super Happy by Bettina Campomanes; (USA, 3:05 min); Takbir by Jordi Calvet
(Spain, 14:49 min); That summer, My first experience by Chia-yu Lu (Taiwan, 20 min); Golden Voice by Mars Verrone (USA, 18 min).

Free Entrance. English subs.

Welcome to the 1st World Student Film Festival which celebrates and showcases the most original, entertaining, exciting, and finely structured well-made short films by the most talented aspiring film students from all over our entire globe: Late Night Morning Shift by Naomi Mohn (USA, 45 sec); Ovaryacting by Jordan Held (United States, 4:18 min); I Dared to Dream by Steven Wan (Australia, 1:32 min); Agent Ripley by Wayne Su (Taiwan, 3:41 min); Ecstasy by Ria Huck (UK, 7:35 min); Self in Progress by Kayla Lehman (USA, 4:01 min); Street Chess Community: Care, Conflict, and Competition by Eugene Yoo (USA, 5:00 min); Survivors by Amy Collins (UK, 19:57 min); Model of Life by Sascha Lo (UK, 5:56 min); Missionary by Rose Duvivier (France, 12:58 min). Free Entrance. English subs.

During World War II, British soldier Jack Celliers (David Bowie) is captured by Japanese forces and held in a prison camp by the honor-bound Capt. Yanoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto). Yanoi and gruff Sgt. Hara (Takeshi Kitano) become intrigued with Celliers’ open defiance in the face of their staunchly old-world ideas about cowardice and shame. Meanwhile, a translator, Lt. Col. John Lawrence (Tom Conti), attempts to find common ground between British and Japanese beliefs. Based on Laurens van der Post’s “The Seed and the Sower”, Nagisa Oshima’s MERRY CHRISTMAS MR :LAWRENCE (1983, 124 min) is an involving, almost unbearably moving and incredibly humane film, as well as an affecting, strange, often beautiful experience about finding common ground in the most unlikely of places.

Free Entrance. English subs.

Australian documentary filmmaker Jim Gerrand first arrived in Cambodia by canoe in 1967 with only a monkey for company – a voyage that became the basis for his first documentary, Mekong Downstream. Gerrand has returned frequently since, producing several films about the country’s politics and history. THE PRINCE AND THE PROPHECY (1988, 78 mkin) explores the years of Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s rule, his juggle for peace, his charisma and contradictions. CAMBODIA: KAMPUCHEA (1988, 57 min) exposes the nightmare of the revolution unleashed by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge after their victory in 1975.

Free Entrance. English subs