My Dear

Aragon Yao grew up in China and later moved to Europe, and in this self-reflective documentary he turns the camera on himself to explore his determination to express his sexual identity openly. Directing and appearing in the film, Yao traces his life as a young gay filmmaker abroad, the expectations of family and tradition that followed him from home, and the people who share his new life, among them Asim Amjad, Marcell Harhai and Lady Dömper. Running just over an hour, the film moves between observed everyday moments and more personal, reflective passages, building a portrait of someone learning who he is far from where he started. Intimate and candid, My Dear is a first-person story about identity, distance and the search for a place where a person can live as himself.