These are nine films you shouldn’t miss at the Rainbow Reel Tokyo which will take place from July 15 – 17, 2023 at the Spiral Hall (Spiral 3F), and from July 21 – 23, 2023 at EuroLive, in Tokyo, Japan.

– Feature Films –

After coming out to her parents, 17-year-old Twinkie takes off on a road trip to meet her online crush with the help of her nerdy best friend, Egghead. As they make their way across the country, Egghead wrestles with his unrequited feelings for Twinkie, while Twinkie learns to embrace her identity as a gay mixed-Asian woman. Told in a series of colorful flashbacks, “Egghead & Twinkie” is a stylized, whip smart, coming-of-age comedy. (RainbowReel 2023)

Trailer:

Robbie Lawlor was diagnosed with HIV at 21 and became one of the youngest people to come out on Irish television. A group of Irish and migrant women, who cannot show their faces, found creative ways to have their voices heard. In this powerful hybrid documentary, directors Anna Rodgers and Shaun Dunne use documentary, performance and genre blurring storytelling techniques to communicate a powerful message of what it is like to live with HIV in Ireland today. (RainbowReel 2023)

Trailer:

In the wildly entertaining and refreshingly unfiltered documentary “Kokomo City”, filmmaker D. Smith passes the mic to four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City – Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell, and Dominique Silver – who unapologetically break down the walls of their profession. Holding nothing back, the film vibrates with energy, sex, challenge, and hard-earned wisdom. (RainbowReel 2023)

Trailer:

– Short Films –

GMT+9 is a nuanced portrait of two Japanese women who want to live together as a couple in Berlin. The plot is based on a collage of interviews and stories that circulated in the authors’ surroundings. The fictional setting creates conditions in which issues that would otherwise be repressed in a kind of self-censorship can be expressed relentlessly.

The two main characters speak of shame, secrecy, and the impossibility of unfolding in ways they demand of themselves. The ideal of openness unwittingly becomes a burden for the protagonists. Berlin is not the imagined place of longing, and the freedom they envisioned is in fact their entry into a fierce economy of self-assertion… (RainbowReel 2023)

Trailer:

This is a documentary film that documented a potluck of middle aged and senior sexual minorities, held at an NPO Purple Hands. Sexual minorities who retire often find themselves in different states of loneliness because of prejudice and inadequacies in laws to protect them. Many feel uncertain about their retirement. The film’s director wanted people to see how happy the Platinum generation live their lives, so that they would have less worries about their future. The director also wants the audience to listen to their stories, and learn that the understanding in society about sexual minorities is changing bit by bit, and that our future is getting better. (RainbowReel 2023)

In a city where men have to go crazy about football, Akbar has to pretend to love the game in order to prevent rejection from his new college friends. (RainbowReel 2023)

Trailer:

Once upon a time, the magical Tank Fairy delivered tanks of gas (with plenty of sass) to the home of young Jojo, a lonely dreamer in need of a glittery godmother… (RainbowReel 2023)

Trailer:

U, a deliverbot, always feels herself a defective robot. So she goes often to the Chiropractor for spinal manipulation treatment, wanting to be as perfect as others. However, she changes her mind when she met the weird but unique video editor, Lin Min. (RainbowReel 2023)

Trailer:

Ayumi Tani, an owner of a small bookstore, and Sayaka Murakami, a call center worker, are a lesbian couple living together. While they feel somewhat stifled by the fact that they are part of the LGBTQ community, they are looking forward to having a wedding-style photo shoot to celebrate their five-year anniversary. Sayaka finds a site for searching photo salons advertising “LGBTQ available” and enthusiastically makes an inquiry, but one photo salon’s disappointing response angers them. Ayumi decides to go confront the photo salon in person, even though Sayaka tries to stop her. Will Ayumi’s words reach Ms. Oshima, an experienced staff of the salon? Will there be a place where Ayumi and Sayaka can enjoy their own slice of happiness? (RainbowReel 2023)

Trailer:

For more information, please visit: https://rainbowreeltokyo.com/2023web/en/