Accessibility
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This screening is presented with English subtitles. Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.
Singapore202262 min English, Mandarin, Malay, Teochew with English subtitlesCanadian Premiere2slgbtq+
At the heart of Baby Queen is a tender and joyful relationship between Singaporean drag queen Opera Tang and her 90-year-old grandmother, who makes many of her performance costumes. The film follows the rhythm of Opera Tang’s day-to-day activities and conversations with chosen family, loved ones, and community, capturing the struggles and joys of being queer through the quiet notation of the personal.
Skillfully woven into the narrative is the context of socially conservative Singapore’s mandatory military conscription and rigid gender binary that Opera Tang beautifully interrupts as she discusses dress measurements with her grandmother while dressed in army shorts and drag-queen heels. Baby Queen’s gentle emotional register offers a sincere reminder that the mundane in queer life is deeply precious because it is so political.
– Jasmine Gui
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Busan International Film Festival,2022
Singapore International Film Festival, 2022
Vision du Reel, 2023
Yuan Bin Lei
Lei Yuan Bin is a director, editor and cinematographer. Lei is known for 03-Flats (2014), which competed in Busan, and I Dream of Singapore (2019), which premiered at the Berlinale. His fifth feature, Baby Queen, premiered at Busan. He is a founding member of film collective 13 Little Pictures.
PG
15 Nov, 2023 7:00 pm
Innis Town Hall–
This screening is presented with English subtitles. Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.
Join us for a talk immediately after the screening with Ms. Nookie Galore & Gei Ping Hohl.
Ms. Nookie Galore
Ms. Nookie Galore is a Horror Storytelling Drag Queen-ish and the Co-Director of the Queer Asian Love Party, New Ho Queen. Ms. Galore has been published in the book “Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipinos and Canadian Imaginiaries,” performed at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, Gardiner Musuem, and Varley Art Museum, and has been featured in CBC Arts. As the Creator of drag plays like “SARAP: A Drag Horror Cooking Show,” and “Scary Stories People of Colour Tell in the Dark,” Ms. Galore’s DRAG reminds us that dreaming is part of our survival, and that nightmares are dreams, too. Get more Nookie in the PBS Docuseries “Brave Spaces” out now!
IG: @santotricks
Gei Ping Hohl
Gei Ping Hohl is Toronto’s multifaceted Vietnamese-Canadian drag performer and cinematographer, Gei Ping Hohl loves to incorporate her Asian culture into her drag to represent the community and to uplift API voices who are marginalized. Whether gei is serving it to you on stage through choreo or serving visual storytelling on screen, Gei Ping Hohl can do it all! Gei also loves Dim Sum and Korean fried chicken, because food always brings communities together!
Delve into the profound connections filmmakers Fawzia Mirza (The Queen of My Dreams) and Zarrar Kahn (In Flames) forge when revisiting their roots in Pakistan, through a cinematic lens. This in-depth conversation explores how filmmakers turn place into its own dynamic character, and unpacks the emotive pull of returning, despite its tensions and contradictions. Join us as they showcase how "home" can transcend geographical boundaries, ignite stories with new interpretations of place, and animate narratives with the rich tapestry of personal heritage.
9 Nov. 2:30 pm
There’s no need to be certain about what’s next as this collection of shorts places us in a position to face specific pivotal moments of reckoning. Whether we’re feeling stuck or turbulent in the chaos of transition, can we remain gentle to ourselves?
11 Nov. 5:00 pm
Last fall, the DOC Institute invited creative producers to reimagine a documentary ecosystem that recognizes the needs of BIPOC producers with critically acclaimed projects, and published their thoughts in the “Creative Producer Think Tank Report.” A key point highlighted was producer/director relationships—listen as panelists delve into the critical and vital collaboration that underpins any successful film.
14 Nov. 4:00 pm
Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is a unique showcase of contemporary Asian cinema and work from Asia and the Asian diaspora. Works include films and videos by artists in Canada, the U.S., Asia and all over the world. As Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival, Reel Asian provides a public forum for Asian media artists and their work, and fuels the growing appreciation for Asian cinema in Canada.
401 Richmond Street West, The Commons (Suite 448)
Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8 Canada
(416) 703 – 9333
info@reelasian.com
Charitable number: 870021383RR0001
