14th Annual NCGLFF - Featured Films

A Filipina transsexual dreams of love and Paris in this so-surreal-it-must-be-true documentary/re-staged re-creation/fantasy that won the Teddy Award for Best Gay & Lesbian Feature at the Berlin Film Festival. The gregarious, determined Raquela is a transsexual “ladyboy” who escapes her dreary Cebu City reality by (possibly) becoming an on-line chat room icon, befriending an Icelandic Filipina, and beginning a dubious fling with an overbearing American web-porn czar. Seemingly inspired by its heroine, Queen Raquela enlivens the traditional documentary form by joyfully refusing to accept its usual boundaries; director Olaf De Fleur Johannesson and Raquela draw upon her life and experiences but add fictional recreations, visions of possible realities, and stories from other ladyboys. Exploitation, prostitution, poverty, and First/Third World relationships are addressed, but the film's heart lies in the courage of turning “reality” into something more fabulous. A dazzling recreation of a remarkable life, Queen Raquela offers the most fun you'll have this year in a “documentary.”

Kimberly Reed, a film and magazine editor, transitioned long ago ---ndash leaving Paul McKerrow, the star quarterback and prodigal son back in Montana. Journeying to Helena to make a film about her high school reunion, Kim hopes for reconciliation with her adopted and deeply troubled brother Marc. Kim is surprised to find herself warmly accepted by her old friends, while Marc---who suffered a traumatic brain injury years ago---becomes aggressive and antagonistic, especially when he compares himself to the all-star football player Kim once was. Home stirs up old memories and both shadowbox the ghost of Paul--- the man Marc could never be, the man Kim never wanted to be. The film takes a mind-boggling twist when Marc, whose mental stability is growing increasingly uncertain, hopes to find his own true self by seeking out his birth parents and discovers that he is the only grandson of Orson Welles (with whom he bears an eerily close resemblance) and Rita Hayworth. Dubbed “a brotherly rivalry between a man and a woman… and Orson Welles,” Prodigal Sons is a transwoman’s attempted reconciliation with her estranged brother and her past. It also is a tale of an adopted son’s lifelong struggle with his identity and his surprising link to film legends. Not to be missed, this documentary proves to be a masterpiece study of sibling rivalry.