A Conversation With the Filmmakers of 'When Men Were Men'
Hours before their line-up of screenings for Trans Awareness Week began, the filmmakers of 'When Men Were Men' chatted with me about the film's personal exploration of masculinity.

In the summer of 1993, timid and shy Zhou Xiao Zhi meets her table partner. Sitting in the classroom’s infamous back row is troublemaker Lin Yi. They go through junior high, high school, and college years together. Lin Yi said to Zhou Xiaozhi: "One day, I’ll take you to a place that only belongs to us." Fast forward ten years...
Hours before their line-up of screenings for Trans Awareness Week began, the filmmakers of 'When Men Were Men' chatted with me about the film's personal exploration of masculinity.
If you identify as part of the queer community, or if you love old school slasher flicks, you will love this movie.
Perhaps the most amazing and groundbreaking quality about The Birdcage is how removed it is from both illness and insensitivity. Whereas films preceding it were often somber stories about the tribulations of being gay in a conservatively straight world, Nichols and screenwriter Elaine May expose the fallacies of conservatism as traditional values are thrown into a more open-minded space. They don’t care how far the community has fallen so much as how high they can rebuild themselves.
Everyone needs a BFF and a "wing person" like Yumi (Chloris Li). Li brings the "straight person" persona, literally and figuratively balancing James Aaron Oh's perfectly timed comedic delivery as the unlucky-in-love.
Overall, Sand Castle was another lack luster war drama that will eventually fade into the many similar war dramas I have seen throughout my life.
Director and writer, Miles Marti, brilliantly created a film that captures the story of a kid that learns a new reality all within the walls of her classroom. Tears Of Knowing lightly steps into the devastation of loss through a childhood lens, and presents a perspective that is not often acknowledged. Though grief and loss are important aspects, the film also showcases excellent portrayals of trust, innocence, and naivety.