Coming to the World Channel’s Doc World series this Sunday, May 28:
OUT RUN
Directors:
S Leo Chiang and Johnny Symons
Premiere:
Full Frame 2016
Select Festivals:
Frameline, LA Asian Pacific, Sheffield DocFest, Inside Out, UN Assoc, NewFest, Hawaii, MIX Brasil, BFI Flare, Cleveland
About:
An LGBT political party attempts to elect openly queer candidates in a primarily Catholic country.
Bemz Benedito heads up Ladlad, the world’s only LGBT political party, based in the Catholic nation of the Philippines, where, despite religiously-motivated bias, LGBT individuals nevertheless make up a visible minority. Benedito, a trans woman, together with two other Ladlad candidates, aims to push this visibility further by running for Congress. With limited resources, they place their hope in a grassroots campaign to mobilize working-class trans beauty salon workers to support their cause, even as a despicable hate monger evangelical pastor stands against them, offensively naming his own group AIDS. Chiang and Symons have located memorable subjects and show a welcome attention to issues of class that are typically ignored, in a well-produced project that otherwise sticks a bit too close to election countdown conventions to generate real surprises.
what (not) to doc 