A Queer Review of the Austin Film Festival (2023)
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.

When Aparna Rajawat was little, her brother told her girls weren't allowed to fly kites. When she asked him where the laws were written for girls, he slapped her so hard it knocked her down. She learned firsthand the violence some women face in India. With her mother's blessings, she secretly took karate lessons to learn to defend herself. She surprised everyone and made headlines when she knocked out the state champion in her first match. There weren't many competitions for girls, so she cut her hair and competed as a boy. Being a boy, she learned that girls were treated like servants and boys were treated like kings. She went on to become India's sixteen-time national champion in martial arts. Aparna later started the Pink Belt Mission to teach women self-determination and self-defense. Pink Belt follows her life story and her attempt to break the Guinness World Record for most women trained in a self-defense lesson, to bring attention to her cause of women's safety.
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.
In this coming-of-age movie centered around senior prom, Mandy is anxious about her acceptance into Harvard while she realizes she's missing other opportunities.
Friendships are tested when two girls have a crush on the popular boy at school.
Andor is an origin story where each side will do whatever it takes.
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.