SIPFF 2023 2023.11.02(Thu.) ~ 2023.11.08(Wed.)

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Special Section for U.S. Queer Movies
The history of the LGBT rights movement in the USA
through Queer cinema

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SIPFF and Embassy of the United States in Seoul present a Special Section for U.S. Queer Movies. U.S. Embassy once said that it tis proud to work with those who enhance human rights of sexual minorities, and it tis a great opportunity to show the volition of Biden Administration that the diplomatic policy centers around equity and human rights. The global partnership between South Korea and the United States is rooted upon mutual democratic values, including freedom, sacrifice for enhancing respect of human rights. Upon such spirits, U.S. Embassy notified that it supports screening the following films.

2022 SIPFF’s Special Section for U.S. Queer Movies will screen diverse films that show the history and the current state of human rights movements of U.S. sexual minorities. By understanding the meaning of such historical incidents, we can find out how the history of the movement of U.S. sexual minorities influenced the movement of Korean sexual minorities. There will also be a chance to form the necessity discourse related to the movement of Korean sexual minorities. The total of 10 films, The Lavender Scare, Stonewall, Milk, Dallas Buyers Club, Freeheld, and Director Andrew Ahn’s Andy, Dol (First Birthday), Spa Night, Driveways, Fire Island, will be screened and there will be forum opened for talking about the films and their backgrounds more in depth.

The film SIPFF specifically focuses on is the documentary film The Lavender Scare. This work deals with the incident of tracking down sexual minorities working in the U.S. government, and promoting a moral panic toward homosexuals with the lead of Eisenhower Administration in the 20th century. The Lavender Scare provides the chance to reflect the hatred and discriminative policy against sexual minorities in the world of South Korean politics. The programmer and living witness of the oldest queer film festival in the U.S. “San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival (A.K.A, Frameline)” Peter Stein will visit South Korea and participate as a panel at the talk program that will be held after the screening session of The Lavender Scare. Stein will explain the history and the outcome of the movement for human rights of U.S. sexual minority since 1950s, while relating it to U.S. queer movies.

Also, Stonewall is the film talking about Stonewall Movement which greatly shifted the flow of the movement for human rights of sexual minorities, and it provides great opportunity to look back on the history of the movement of Korean sexual minorities since 1993 and its turning point. Milk, depicting the story of Harvey Bernard Milk who was the first sexual minority U.S. politician who came out, will offer the opportunity of thinking about the movement for the enactment of the Anti-Discrimination Act in South Korea. Dallas Buyers Club was created based on the history of developing a medicine for AIDS in the U.S. in the 80s, and can help the audiences to think about the history of the movement of presentation of HIV/AIDS. Freeheld, depicting the real life stories of a lesbian couple who struggled for legally inheriting the pension to her partner after she died in the mid-2000s, when the same sex marriage was not legalized yet, presents the chance to think about the movement of the legalization of same sex marriage and same sex civil unions. Additionally, the works of Andrew Ahn betray diverse social issues current sexual minority diasporas face, and elicit many meaningful discourses.

As such, this year’s Special Section for U.S. Queer Movies is full of chances for sharing problems and discourses related to the human rights of sexual minorities the current South Korean society faces.