Join filmmakers, artists, and community activists to discuss trans representation in contemporary media. Saturday, May 4th, 4:00 pm Bright Family Screening Room, Emerson College This panel will look to address the following questions: What is the concept of representation? Who controls the representation? How are stories being told that appropriately display these ideas and concepts? In our years of programming LGBT film we’ve seen the same old same old regarding transgender representation, narrative, etc. and we’d like this panel unpack that. The majority of these narratives aren’t written by members of the trans community and so where is the control? Who tells these stories and for whom? Confirmed panelist are: Dan Hunt. Director of MR ANGEL (2013 Fest), BEAR RUN (2008) Caleb Cole. Artist. Michelle Figueiredo. Michelle is an IS OPS and Business Transformation Senior Associate at State Street Corporation, where she is the only known transgender employee and the only known person to transition on the job in the company worldwide. Other panelists to be announced. This panel is co-presented by the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition.

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Straitlaced optometrist Weichung is finding the typical married life difficult, as his wife, Feng, unfulfilled by her white‐walled office job and spurred on by her mother, pushes him for a second child. Then he bumps into an old friend from his gay past, setting off an unexpected array of dormant emotions. Meanwhile, his sister Mandy flees her sad sack fiancé San‐San, coping via comfort food and the fantastical appearance of a soap opera star on her couch. Arvin Chen’s sophomore feature is a fresh and playful comedy about the brave fronts put forward in the search for a satisfying family life and job. Whimsy is never far from this story, both through the appropriately sappy soundtrack and several dream‐like touches: not just a soap opera star, but one character whose retirement is symbolized by his magical floating away on an umbrella and a breakout karaoke sequence reinforced by the title Shirelles song. Outstanding performances by Richie Ren and singer Mavis Fan as the central married couple help Chen find a true emotional core, especially in the heartrending moment when Feng realizes the truth about her husband’s dalliances, inspiring a charming look at what happens in a traditional society when you seek a big change.

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The list of predicted dooms days is long and goes back thousands of years, yet the world is still turning like it always has been. But what needs to be done when your friend disappears in fear of the world's end? Marion, a sensationalistic TV‐journalist, decides to look for her friend Lucia who disappears after a quarrel about the probability of a doomsday scenario. Marion is drawn into the research of a potential world's end and believes, Lucia has taken off with a suicidal cult. In her search, Marion travels to 6 Portugal and finds a group of people camping outdoors in an uninhabited strip close to Salto and sees them preparing for the day of leaving with rituals, dance and singing..

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