Out Run

Make Politics Fierce
by
Year Released
2016
Film Length(s)
57 mins
Closed captioning available
Remote video URL

Introduction

Mobilizing working-class transgender hairdressers and beauty queens, the dynamic leaders of the world’s only LGBT political party wage a historic quest to elect a trans woman to the Philippine Congress.

Featured review

Princeton students were gripped by the film!
Judy Jarvis
Director LGBT Center, Princeton University

Synopsis

As leader of the world’s only LGBT political party, Bemz Benedito dreams of being the first transgender woman in the Philippine Congress. But in a predominantly Catholic nation, rallying for LGBT representation in the halls of Congress is not an easy feat. Bemz and her eclectic team of queer political warriors must rethink traditional campaign strategies to amass support from unlikely places. Taking their equality campaign to small-town hair salons and regional beauty pageants, the activists mobilize working-class trans hairdressers and beauty queens to join the fight against their main political opponent, a homophobic evangelical preacher, and prove to the Filipino electorate that it’s time to take the rights of LGBT people seriously. But as outsiders trying to get inside the system, will they have to compromise their political ideals in order to win? Culminating on election day, Out Run provides a unique look into the challenges LGBT people face as they transition into the mainstream and fight for dignity, legitimacy, and acceptance across the globe.

Reviews

...essential viewing for understanding the convergence of transnational politics and sexualities today.
Celine Parreñas Shimizu
Distinguished Scholar of Feminist Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara
...an extremely astute investigation of the nature of LGBTQ politics, today, as national and international spectacle.
Richard Cante
Faculty Director, Program in Sexuality Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill
Out Run tells the stories of courageous trans* leaders navigating a hostile political world.
Andrew Reynolds
LGBT Representation & Rights Research Initiative, UNC-Chapel Hill
An eye-opener of a documentary.
San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Encourage(s) us to glean the translational properties of the term 'transgender', particularly when it is mobilized outside of the West... Out Run gifts us with the chance to revisit the labor and craft involved in demanding more just futures.
- Robert Diaz
Transgender Studies Quarterly

Awards and Screenings

Best Cinematography, Documentary, Los Angeles Asian Pacific International Film Festival, 2016
World Premiere, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, 2016
Official Selection, Sheffield Doc/Fest: Sheffield International Documentary Festival, 2016
Centerpiece Presentation, TWIST Seattle Queer Film Festival, 2016
Official Selection, Frameline40: San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, 2016
Official Selection, Hawaii International Film Festival, 2016
Official Selection, EBS International Documentary Festival, 2016

Features and Languages

Film Features

  • Closed Captioning

Subtitle/Caption Languages

  • English

Promotional Material

Promotional Stills

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