Film Streams’ “Queer Asia” Series Explores Identity Through Cinema

May 28th, 2026

A magical experience can happen while watching a movie. Sometimes it lasts only for a moment, a single shot or scene. Other times it carries through an entire film. It is that rare feeling when a story seems to understand something deeply personal about you, illuminating emotions or truths that are often left hidden.

For Marcus Gunnadi, White’s Fellow at Film Streams, that transformative power of cinema is at the heart of Queer Asia, a special film series presented for Pride Month at the Ruth Sokolof Theater.

Running from June 5 through June 10, the series features three acclaimed films from across Asia that center on characters who challenge expectations and search for connection in worlds that often resist them.

The series begins with The Handmaiden, the visually striking South Korean thriller directed by Park Chan-wook. The film follows a young pickpocket hired to serve as handmaiden to a wealthy Japanese heiress as part of an elaborate scheme orchestrated by a con man. As loyalties shift and hidden desires emerge, the film transforms into a suspenseful exploration of manipulation, intimacy, and power.

From there, audiences travel to Pakistan for Joyland, a critically acclaimed drama examining family tradition and personal freedom. The story follows the youngest son of a conservative family who secretly joins an erotic dance theater and develops feelings for a trans dancer. The relationship forces every member of the household to confront expectations surrounding gender, identity, and duty.

The final film in the series, Viet and Nam, offers a quieter and deeply atmospheric meditation on love and loss. Set among coal miners in Vietnam, the film follows two young lovers navigating questions of memory, migration, and the future while searching for meaning in a changing world.

Together, the three films create a portrait of individuals seeking authenticity despite social pressure and rigid expectations.

“For people who don’t fit into society’s expectations of sexuality or gender, art has always been an important way to understand oneself and the universe we live in,” Gunnadi said in his Arts Today segment.

The series invites audiences not only to experience stories rarely centered in mainstream cinema, but also to reflect on the labels and assumptions that shape everyday life.

Whether viewers attend a single screening or experience all three films as a marathon of international storytelling, Queer Asia offers an immersive and emotionally resonant celebration of queer voices in contemporary cinema.

The films will screen daily June 5 through June 10 at the Ruth Sokolof Theater. More information and tickets are available through Film Streams.