Boys for Beauty
Director：Mickey Chen
Screenwriter：
Cast：
Producer：
Cinematographer：Mickey Chen
Running Time： 63 mins
Region：Tanwan China
Year：1998
Language：Chinese
Production Company：Taiwan Queer Pride Image House
SYNOPSIS
A frank and entertaining portrait of three gay teenagers and their family relations in Confucian Chinese society. An exceptional theatrical success in Taipei, it marks a major achievement for a documentary anywhere in Asia. Understandably receptive to word-of-mouth publicity, the film’s charm is contagious. It’s not that the boys are born performers; they are naturals because the filmmaker provides them with a trusting platform.
Director Biography
<p>Mickey Chen is persistently making documentaries on queer and gender issues in Taiwan. He also participates in street protests and believes that making documentaries can be an activist endeavor for social reform. He started shooting his first doc《Not Simply a Wedding Banquet》 in 1996 and his works circulate in gay and lesbian, Asian-American, and international documentary film festivals. In 1999, his 《Boys for Beauty》daringly went on theatrical release in Taipei and got great box office credit. Thus he won the Independent Spirit Award in 1999 Taipei Film Festival. Then he spent years investigating on a murder case of a sissy boy bullied in junior high school in the South of Taiwan. In 2003,《Memorandum on Happiness》 chronicled the dramatic break-up and surprising domestic violence between a lesbian couple. His latest piece《Scars on Memory》 marks Mickey Chen’s first decade in making queer documentaries in Taiwan.</p>
Director's Statement
<p>Being a queer documentarist in Taiwan, I try my best to figure out a way of survival. Getting grants, persuading people to come out to show gayness and lesbianism…a lot of hard work forces me to become very very independent. Boys for Beauty is a great relief for me, as it allows me to return to the innocence of queer youth. I learned a lot from these flaming kids and got to know more about documentary – the genre that empowers me these years.</p><p>Fifteen years ago, a queer high school kid like me in Taipei couldn’t speak up, didn’t have any gay or lesbian role models. We had no queer visions. At that time, I had so many queer brothers and sisters who loved the ‘ wrong’ one, I mean, those straight people who wouldn’t love them in return. Many of us even tried committing suicide at that young age. Many years passed by; finally, I grabbed my camera to explore the new generation, the brave new queer world.</p><p>Boys for Beauty turned out to be a box office hit in Taiwan in 1999. The whole queer community mobilized and put a lot of effort in making this documentary a legend. Furthermore, we can say there’d been a golden decade of documentary in Taiwan, created and circulated by the persistently hard-working documentary group Full Shot. With such a beautiful heritage, we young filmmakers will continue our voyage of making more and more diverse and outspoken documentaries</p>
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