In partnership with QFest, Holocaust Museum Houston’s young professionals’ group, NEXTGen invites you to a screening of Portraits of the Rainbow. Photographer Leslie Kee lived in Japan for 25 years. As a bisexual himself, he trains his gaze routinely on subjects of taboo and discrimination. He was the perfect match for the “Out In Japan,” aiming to eventually feature 10,000 LGBTQIA+s throughout Japan. He feels the time has come to push back against the pervasive prejudice and legal discrimination. The film follows the ambitious project for over a year as Leslie completes the first 1,000 portraits. We get to intimately know a set of very different protagonists: two women, deeply in love, who have their first child and are faced with a society not ready to accommodate their family structure. Another woman, devastated by the loss of her female partner to suicide, finds hope in finally fulfilling her lifelong ambition of becoming a man. And a gay university professor who fights against the steep discrimination HIV-positives still face in Japan. Even Leslie himself has a life-changing experience.
Directed by Ayumi Nakagawa. This film will be screened in Japanese and have English subtitles.
(2018; 79 min; Japan; Japanese; Color; Digital)
Following the screening of "Portraits of the Rainbow," Pride Portraits founder Eric Edward Schell will speak about how he created a global movement in Houston, Texas by combining activism and photography. The LGBTQIA+ community and its allies, with the help of Pride Portraits have a platform to share their narratives their way. Schell will also speak about Stonewall 50, and what this past June meant for LGBTQIA+ History.
Over the past two and a half years, Pride Portraits has become the largest LGBTQIA+ visibility campaign to date. The campaign, comprised of a photograph and statement from each participant, seeks to represent the community and its allies one photograph and story at a time.