Orientations: Lesbian & Gay Asians

Richard Fung’s seminal 1985 film was the first documentary to explore the perspectives of queer Asians in North America, featuring interviews with fourteen lesbian women and gay men of different Asian backgrounds. The film captures pivotal moments in Toronto’s history, and presents an intimate portrait of the texture of queer lives and politics at that time. Its themes include the process of coming out; homosexuality within Asian communities; understanding racism within the lesbian, gay, and feminist communities; and cultural self-assertion through art. Active in Canadian LGBT organizations such as Lesbians of Colour and Gay Asians Toronto, the participants’ commitment and outspokenness challenge the stereotype of passive Asians. Making a case for the importance of different communities working together in allyship, Orientations enables its interviewees to speak about the ways that being queer and Asian have shaped who they are.

There was a trailer...but, it has since disappeared.