No Borders x Nowness Asia: Stories of Love and Identity

In honor of our upcoming collaboration with NOWNESS Asia, we are showcasing the beautiful films that we screened during our event in New York last year. This week’s short films are stories of Love and Identity. They explore self-love, empowerment, friendship, race, class, and queerness.

Isang Daa’t Isang Mariposa / 101 Butterflies (2019) by Filipino filmmaker Norvin de los Santos is a story on how love perseveres, and how queer love overcomes societal structures that cage us.

“It may be tempting to dismiss Perla as an elderly woman losing touch with reality. However, like gender, the film also seeks to transcend conventional perceptions of time and reality, aiming to parallelize the relativity of time, the enchantment within the mundane, and the existence of parallel universes.” -Norvin de los Santos

Watch the film here.

to the girl that looks like me (2021) by Ewurakua Dawson-Amoah (raised in the US with Ghanian roots) is a striking visual poem on self love, empowerment, spirituality, the body, and Black beauty.

“Of course the physical is a big part in the piece with the hair and with the mention of skin tone, but it also goes into the mental and emotional. I try to pose the question, ’What are we going to do to embrace this and make this a powerful part of our story?’”

-Ewurakua Dawson-Amoah for NYU Tisch

Watch the film here.

Lucky Fish (2023) by Emily May Jampel follows Maggie, a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, exploring Asian-American familial dynamics, coming-of-age romance, and queerness.

“I think in queer films... and even in queer relationships in real life, when you desire and admire someone, sometimes it’s like, do I like them, or do I want to be them?” - Emily May Jampel

Watch the film here.

Secret Base (2020) by Qiying Lin explores the dynamics of class and power structures through the eyes of two children whose friendship and love for one another transcends those boundaries.

Watch the film here.