Comic Relief contained a different kind of short... Things got started with Slap, directed by Roman Cortez, a film about gossip. Boxing and the relations between the sexes were contrasted in Below the Belt. Directed by Michael Velasquez, this metaphor was skillfully developed. Grandma's Happy Fist, directed by Hyun-Ho Choi, got appreciative laughter from the audience whenever it was shown during the festival. It seems that Little Red Riding Hood might have kicked some ass in her time... Super-Hairo, by Peter Wang, had an interesting twist to the dating game. It involved hair and being invisible. Ruckus, directed by Dean Ishida, was a funny take on trying to become a boy band. The fact that the members are in their 30s only makes the video even more humorous. Mukul Khurana

Muni to the Marriage, directed by Stuart Gaffney, was a simple meditation about the right to marry--regardless of sexual orientation. This is a topical subject. You may have heard about it in your neck of the woods? The situation in Two Women, a Brother and a Baby, directed by Ali Wong, is a little more complicated. Two women discover that they are lesbian and fall in love. That's the easy part. They then want to become parents with a child who shares their genes... Tina Gharavi, director of Mother/Country, goes to her native Iran in order to seemingly inform her mother about her life choices. But, it seems to me that the short was more about questions that Gharavi would like to have answered by her mother. Gender F*cking was a reflection on gender variance by Maricar Camaya. Director Mark V. Reyes gave us insight into the cruising scene in Manila. Last Full Show clearly depicts the life of young men when they are searching. It is not easy to learn to live with disappointments. Mukul Khurana

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VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: You may use my writing for your own purposes. However, if you duplicate or distribute the material in my blog, I must be given credit. If you duplicate or distribute without my permission, you are infringing copyright law and such an act will result in all possible legal sanctions as permitted by the law. Thank you for respecting my intellectual property. Mukul Khurana

I said I liked challenges--that I liked things that are out of the ordinary. My so-called Queer Life was such a collection of shorts. These shorts were out of the ordinary to me, but for many amongst us, this is everyday life. Barefeet was directed by Sonali Gulati. Using poetic words and mesmerizing images, a story was narrated that spoke of going home. Yet going home was not really going home because the narrator had to leave a part of herself behind--her lesbian identity. Though she was thrilled to be able to express her Indianness openly in India (something she couldn't do in America all the time), the main character had to acknowledge that she was also leaving home by leaving America because here she could be true to her sexuality--something she couldn't do in India. In fact, gay and lesbian sexuality is somewhat tolerated in Indian society. It is, as Clinton discovered, a "don't ask, don't tell" kind of a world. Ariana, directed by Michael Sandoval and Shashi Balooja, dealt with the tension created in the home of a Dr. Abbas Immad when he brings his male lover home. The grandmother he takes care of becomes a source of division between the two. But a source of division can also become a source of unity... Mukul Khurana

San Diego Asian Film Festival--Day 2

If pure love is your thing, Crying out Love, in the Center of the World should be on your menu. Directed by Yukisada Isao and written by Shinobu Yaguichi & Junko Yaguich, this story is of a kind that we don't really recognize in the West. It is the story of a true and deep love that exists despite being platonic. The story begins with Ritsuko finding a cassette in an old sweater--a cassette with great meaning (in fact, it could be argued that the film was sponsored by SONY as cassettes and Walkmans play large roles in this movie). There are secrets that Ritsuko (who is about to marry Saku) harbors. But there are secrets that Saku harbors that concern a certain Aki in his past. This is one of those stories that will have you crying and then sobering up for no reason at all--then, crying again... The Greeks understood melodrama, but so do the Japanese. Mukul Khurana