A 2023 Cannes Film Festival documentary is highlighting Philippine ballroom culture
Tens! Tens! Tens across the board!
Voguing isn’t just seen in the ballroom scene of New York, the Philippines also actually has its own ballroom culture and one 2023 Cannes Film Festival entry put it in the spotlight.
ICYMI, Tens Across the Borders, part of this year’s Marché du Film, tells the story of four trailblazers in the underground ballroom culture of Asian countries including the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
According to director Sze-Wei Chan, this documentary is a story of “change” and “how families are transformed.” “Even today, a lot of kids in Asia are being distanced or even disowned by their families because they are queer,” she told Variety.
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“[This community] is your surrogate family that really keeps you going, because family is still so important to us—so we really see that empowerment.”
For those who aren’t familiar, ballroom began in the 70s in Harlem, New York as a safe space for the African-American and Latino queer community. In this LGBTQ+ subculture, drag queens and trans women would compete in pageants and “walk” in different categories for trophies and cash prizes. If you’ve ever seen the series Pose (2018) and the documentary Paris is Burning (1990), they give a glimpse into this ball culture.
In the Philippines, Xyza Mizrahi, the mother of the House of Mizrahi, told CNN Life that the first official ball in the country started in 2016—the Labyrinth Ball in Makati. However, ballroom had always existed in the country, though different in name, like the barangay gay pageants.
“It has been happening here. It’s been here, it’s existing in our country, na parang iba lang ‘yung tawag,” she said. “Kasi ‘di ba sa pageantry, ‘yung every barangay, ‘di ba? That’s realness, basically, that’s realness! And when may swimsuit competition, that’s the body. Gown? That’s best dressed.”
Xyza’s story is set to be told in Tens Across the Borders along with ballroom figures Aurora Sun Labeija of Thailand and Teddy Neverland Oricci of Malaysia.
Chan told Realscreen Magazine that the goal of the film is to “give a portrait of ballroom communities” and the life of these individuals in Southeast Asia.
“But for somebody in this region to be telling stories from this part of the world… our culture is colorful, not because we want it to be beautiful for other people, but because this is how we love it. And that’s where I want this to sit.”
Other Filipino stories have also screened at Cannes, including Richard Somes’ Topakk, Ato Bautista’s Grace, Vince Tañada’s I Am Ninoy, and J.E. Tiglao’s Her Locket. Meanwhile, Sean Devlin’s Asog premiered at Marché du Film.
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Source: we the pvblic
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