Reel Affirmations is quite proud of the “International” in its tagline Washington, DC’s International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Since the very first Reel Affirmations, foreign films have played an integral part of each festival’s line-up. In the early years most of those films tended to be European. Recently, though, we’ve seen an explosion in both the quantity and quality of films from Asia—RA17’s programming committee reviewed 47 Asian films alone—a record from that region.

As LGBT sexuality has become more open and prominent in Asian societies, filmmakers have been freer to creatively tell the stories of our lives. Although Hong Kong, with its British culture, has always produced a large number of films, in the past few years we have seen the rise of filmmaking in other countries. The ranges of stories and tones covers the expanse of glbt experience, from the light and loopy Manay Po to the epic sweep of The King and the Clown and The Chinese Botanist’s Daughter. Look for these titles during RA17:

PHILLIPPINES: Prolific Filipino director Joel Lamangan has been turning out his highly successful gay films over the last few years, and two of them are in RA17. On the lighter side, ZsaZsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh (right) tells the story of Ada, a drag queen from Manila, who moves to the countryside to get over her broken heart. After an odd occurrence, she is transformed into ZsaZsa Zaturnnah a butt-kicking superheroine (played by a woman). Don’t miss this crazy, loopy good time! In Manay Po, we meet a widow and her three sons—each of whom is gay or likely to be gay. In typically Filipino style there is plenty of melodrama to go around in this comedy about the strength of family bonds.

SOUTH KOREA: South Korea has produced many excellent films including The King and the Clown, the highest grossing film in South Korean history on its release—it also was South Korea's entry into the Academy Awards for best foreign language film. Set in the 15th Century, it follows a troupe of acrobats and jesters who come to entertain the court of a tyrannical king. One of them is very feminine and dresses as a woman. The king is smitten with him and the two become very close. This leads to much palace intrigue as the king's consort tries to devise a way to eliminate her rival. With gorgeous costumes and beautiful colors the film is a feast for the eye.

JAPAN: In Japan, manga graphic novels (what we know as comics) deal with a variety of topical issues, with whole series devoted to gay and lesbian characters. Love My Life, is the witty story of adolescent desire and is based on a popular manga about two young college-age girls in love. Of note is the fact that one of the girls has a gay father who tells her that her now-dead mother was also a lesbian. And her best friend at school is a sweet gay boy. This delightful film will appeal to both gay and lesbian audiences. Also from Japan comes the new remake of the 1964 Japanese Lesbian classic Manji. (The original screened in Reel Affirmations 10). Finely detailed and set in the ’60s just as the original, it is the erotic story of a couple of Japanese housewives who fall into a passionate affair. Be sure to listen for the wonderful sound effects.

TAIWAN: Eternal Summer is the story of two young men who have been friends since first grade—one is gay, the other straight. The chemistry between the young leads is spellbinding; any gay man who has ever been in love with a straight friend will be able to relate to this touching story. Spider Lilies, which won the Teddy award for the best GLBT film at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, tells of a quiet 20-something tattoo artist and a teenage webcam girl. The story is told using flashbacks to show how the two girls have reached this point in their lives.

Also an epic is the award-winning The Chinese Botanist's Daughter, by the director Daï Sijie, who grew up in China but now lives and works in France. His latest movie tells the story of an orphan girl who goes to study under a master botanist. There she meets the man's daughter and the two girls fall in love. Filled with beautiful expansive images this film is truly a sight to behold.

But it’s not all smooth sailing for gay and lesbian films everywhere in Asia. Singapore has notoriously stringent censorship. This hard-line stance against LGBT imagery led to the banning of the gay film Solos from this year's Singapore Film Festival. And director Royston Tan has had many run-ins with the censors there. Even Thailand, often viewed as a very gay-friendly country, has its own censorship issues: queer characters such as transsexuals (called katoey in Thailand) are often portrayed for comic relief in film.

We are certain that years to come work of depth and understanding will help free cultures from censorship and prejudice, and we’ll see more wonderful films from these emerging film-making countries.