“I thought it was just something fashionable that people in the West were trying,” one mother says, regarding homosexuality and its common perception in contemporary China. Popo Fan's touching documentary Mama Rainbow opens with a series of street interviews with passersby about their feelings on homosexuality. The filmmaker follows this with a more pointed question, one which leads us into the heart of Mama Rainbow: “What if your son or daughter told you they were gay?” In the film, we meet six different Chinese mothers, all the parents of gay and lesbian children, who share their experiences with the camera. Though the specifics of their stories are all quite different, each of the mothers experiences their own version of a “coming out” tale — recognizing, acknowledging, and accepting their children’s sexualities. Mama Rainbow paints a hopeful portrait of the slowly changing mindset of a culture where the fear of persecution and rejection still makes coming out and living openly a great challenge.

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THE LALA ROAD

Four Chinese lesbians discuss the struggles they have faced in the pursuit of living freely with the women they love.