Some Women (2021) Review by Cab Some Women, Quen Wong’s daring feature documentary debut, clinches the Audience Choice Award at Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) 2021 and updates the trans documentary for the new age.
Some Women (2021) / Tiger Tiger Pictures
One word that comes to mind when I think of Some Women (2021) is intimate, describing the incredibly privileged position the audience occupies as Quen Wong lifts the veil on her past. Turning the camera on herself, the director becomes subject: no longer is she a removed observer in the shadows1 but an active self-ethnographer, working to preserve stories about trans histories, and more importantly trans presents and futures. Quen Wong unearths a box of old photos that she had sworn to seal up forever, and at the end of the film goes through them for the first time with her loving husband, Francis. She looks beautiful and quietly dignified in them, but that is not the point. With the unearthing of the box of photographs, a once-painful reminder of her childhood, Wong exorcises the shame and secrecy that she has kept for all these years. Along with Wong, the documentary casts its focus on two other women, one from the generation before and after her: drag legend Anita who was born again in the sisterhoods formed among the women and queer people of Bugis Street in the 60’s, and Lune Loh (she/ they), an eloquent young trans activist. The charismatic June Chua (I will forever be fond of her, for giving me ice cream at Pink Dot) also