‘Sunday Beauty Queen’ on feminist collective’s Top 10 list

Mylyn Jacobo (left) and her late boss Jack Soo in “Sunday Beauty Queen”

Baby Ruth Villarama’s “Sunday Beauty Queen” was included on the Top 10 list of films at the Hot Docs fest, by the Toronto Feminist Collective. The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is currently ongoing in Toronto, screening 230 films from 58 countries, until May 7.

The feminist website praises Hot Docs as “one of our favorite times of the year” because “we get to learn about different cultures and movements through film.” The group also hails the event as “probably the most intersectional film festival in Toronto.”

In its summary of “Sunday Beauty Queen,” the collective relates that the docu’s Filipino domestic workers “toil for a pittance in the shadow of Hong Kong’s glittering façade.” Described as “colorful and confident,” the Queens “use their only dayoff to reclaim their dignity, exercising grace and beauty in a pageant unlike any other,” the site remarks.

Also in the lineup are docus that tell the stories of a South African icon (“Winnie”), a Mexican chanteuse who happens to be a lesbian (“Chavela”), a ’50s farm workers’ union leader (“Dolores”), and world-famous drag ballerinas (“Rebels on Pointe”).—BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR.