INTERVIEW: – This year, the Filipina actress and director will have to decide on films by Justine Triet or even Catherine Corsini in this new edition of the Cannes Film Festival’s Queer Palm, the LGBT award, which will be held from May 16 to 27.
after Senorita and Revelation, he rose to fame in 2019 at the Venice Film Festival with his third film Brooklyn-Confidential The story of a white man in love with a transgender Filipina in Donald Trump’s America. Shown at more than 100 international festivals, the film has been copied by its peers, becoming a benchmark for queer cinema. Today, transgender actress and director Isabel Sandoval, who is a native Filipino and an immigrant to the United States, lives in a new canonization. from May 16 to 27, he will be a member of the Cannes Queer Palm jury. A film festival that honors films dedicated to sexual diversity and gender.
Among the films shown this year. Anatomy of a Fall By Justine Triet or even The return By Catherine Corsini. “It means my point of view matters,” he told us as he approached the competition, chaired by American filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell. Because, after all, who better to help champion queer identity in film than her? Interview:
On video: Cannes 2022: The Rise of the Steps on May 28
Miss Figaro. – You joined the new jury of Queer Palm 2023. What does this award mean to you?
Isabel Sandoval. – The Queer Palm aims to break the conventions of queer cinema, which will be limited to filming white men coming out of the closet or transgender people in transition. We saw it land of joy (Winner of Queer Palm 2022, NDRL:), which happens for example in Pakistan. LGBTQI+ communities are not only in the West, and we need to reflect this reality. Being a Filipino transgender filmmaker myself, participating in this award means that my point of view is legitimate and important.
What would be your definition? “strange» ?
To me, being “funny” means resisting conformity and breaking free from the mainstream. As an artist, this gives a limitless and very daring space to experiment based on a questionnaire of preconceived ideas. Often more disturbing and adventurous works appear, which are the future of cinema.
Are we to understand that with “excited” and “adventurous” works, this is what you expect from running movies this year?
I expect the exploration of identity, desire and the human to be as aggressive and personal in substance as in form. The more mainstream and conventional a queer film is, both aesthetically and ideologically, the more resistant I am to it.
To be “weird” is to resist conformity and break free from the mainstream
Isabel Sandoval
at Brooklyn Secret , a film you directed, you play a transgender woman in transition in today’s American society. How did you approach this topic?
Brooklyn-Confidential a gesture of rebellion against certain clichés that we see too often in movies or on television. The idea that transgender characters are unfortunate victims of trauma and misery. For my film, I wanted to see a heroine who had will and a sense of dignity. A character with layers of complexity, not a symbol of oppression.
Do you think queer films are better represented at film festivals today?
The Queer Palm proves that there are real initiatives to make them more visible. Especially since today queer cinema is not only a person’s sexual orientation, but gender identity, which is one of the most important socio-cultural changes of the last decade.
In 2021, a report by the association “SOS Homophobia” indicated that there was a 12 percent increase in crimes against LGBT+ people in France compared to 2019. Facing this discrimination, being a Queer Palm juror is an act of war for you.
This award definitely showed land of joy last year as a landmark work of cinematography, not as a charitable gesture. The film’s notoriety has forced its country of origin, Pakistan, to look in the mirror at its stance on queer identity (The film was banned from cinemas in Pakistan, angering the country’s queer communities, editor’s note) This is a concrete and real example that Queer Palm, through the films it thoughtfully chooses to reward, is a belligerent competition.
As such, can cinema have an influence on thinking?
He can, if the political convictions he defends are whispered and not shouted. I think when your film takes an overtly political stance, you alienate yourself in the opposite camp. However, everything is in subtlety and subtlety. The better you know how to dose, the more you can reach people. Because no one likes being lectured or scolded too bluntly.
Political beliefs should be gently whispered in the cinema, because no one likes to be lectured.
Isabel Sandoval
Apart from Queer Palm, what films are you looking forward to at the Cannes Film Festival?
I can’t wait to see Jonathan Glazer’s new movie, especially since it’s been over a decade. Under the skin, one of my favorite movies. There are also new Alice Rohrwacher films, ChimeraAnd Flower Moon Assassins by Martin Scorsese. Not forgetting Pedro Costa’s new short films (Daughters of Fire) and Almodovar (A strange way of life)
Which jury member will you be?
I will be furious (laughs). In any case, I know what I like and I will defend it shamelessly!
The full list of works nominated for Queer Palm 2023:
Category of feature films.
- Anatomy of a Fall By Justin Triet
- The return By Catherine Corsini
- The idol By Sam Levinson
- time to love By Cathel Quilver
- how to have sex By Molly Manning
- Simple as Sylvain By Monya Chokri
- Rosalie By Stephanie Di Giusto
- going up By Lilla Halla
- Conan By Bertrand Mandico
- Prince By Pierre Creton
- Xiao Bai Chuan By Zihan Geng
Short film category.
- 27:00 By Flora Anna Buda
- A strange way of life By Pedro Almodovar
- Darron Pust By Shafagh Abosaba and Mariam Mahdieh
- Bolero By Nance Laborde-Jourda
- Foreign By Jenny Beth and Iris Chassaine
- I saw the devil’s face By Julia Kowalski
- Mast Del By Mariam Tafakor
Source: Le Figaro
