To Freely Flourish 綻放 - Film screening with Panel Discussion

After overwhelming audience responses at the sold out premiere screening last July, screening at the Beijing Queer Film Festival, and private workplace and community screenings with City of Sydney, Qtopia and Pride Culture Club at Sydney Uni, a free public community screening of To Freely Flourish 綻放 is being sponsored by the City of Sydney in partnership with ACON for Lunar New Year 2025!

After the screening will be a panel discussion about experiences of queer people within our culturally and linguistically diverse diaspora communities hosted by diversity and inclusion advocate Adrian Phoon with writer-director Victor Wu, and Nurul Tajularus, founder of Sydney queer Muslims.

Allocations for the general public have been exhausted. Please join our or follow our socials or on for notifications on future screenings. Currently the next planned screening is at (12-1pm with a short Q&A).

For our children to flourish, is often the singular focus of migrant families. But what does it really mean for our children and our communities to truly flourish?

辅导子女绽放到底意味著什么?

A story about family disconnection despite the most loving efforts; simply due to failing to see your child as their whole self.
A story about the power of ordinary everyday queer visibility; how simply living openly and truthfully helps others in our communities connect again with those they love.
A story about the power of pursuing our passions, and the profound life lessons they teach us.

这是一个关于尽管充满爱，但因未能看见孩子真实模样而导致家庭关系疏远的故事。
它讲述了酷儿如何在我们周围日常生活；如何通过公开真实地生活，帮助我们社区中的人重新与他们所爱的人建立联系。
这也是一个关于追求热情的故事，探索那些深刻的生活课题带给我们的启示。

It is 2017 in Sydney Australia, in the height of the Marriage Equality debate and the word 'Love' is everywhere. But for Peter, an Australian-born Chinese adolescent exploring his sexuality, it is the meaning of love and family itself that he is grappling with, against the background of his parents' constant bickering and his father's aloofness resembling nothing of the ideals he sees in the political campaigns. This is when a new piano teacher enters his life and changes everything. She inspires him to find his own meaning through his passion for music.

2017年，澳大利亚雪梨，正值婚姻平权激辩的高潮，"爱"这个词随处可见。但对彼得来说，这位出生于澳大利亚的华裔青少年，正在探索自己的性取向，真正困扰他的却是爱与家庭的意义。父母的不断争吵，以及父亲的冷漠与他在政治运动中，所看到的理想形象截然不同。在这个时候，一位新的钢琴老师进入了他的生活，改变了一切。她激励彼得通过对音乐的热爱，找到属于自己的意义。

To Freely Flourish 綻放, is a queer coming-of-age Chinese diaspora family drama in Cantonese, Mandarin and English (40min with English and Simplified Chinese captions). Content warning: depiction of family conflict, and mental health issues.

This is an 18+ event. Please join our mailing list or follow our socials @freelyflourish.thefilm or on Facebook for notifications on future screenings which may be all ages events. Currently the next planned screening is at Bankstown council's Our People's Festival (12-1pm with a short Q&A).

Adrian Phoon (Moderator)

Adrian is a former Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Co-Chair and Sydney WorldPride board member, and inaugural participant in ACON’s gay Asian conversation group and CAAP’s Lotus Playwriting Project. A regular speaker on diversity & inclusion, he’s appeared at events hosted by Apple, Google and SXSW Sydney.

Nurul Tajularus

Nurul is the President and founder of Sydney Queer Muslims (SQM) Inc. A late bloomer in the world of activism, she incorporated the organisation with 2 other members of the community as a response to the Pulse massacre in 2017 with the aim of providing support to Queer Muslims in Sydney through social connections, referrals to crisis and spritual counselling and crisis accomodation. The organisation has since grown in numbers and involvement in the public space. SQM also produces podcasts and other resources regarding issues that affects the Queer Muslim community. Annual events include Iftar dinners and Eid celebrations for the community.

Victor Wu (Writer-Director)

Victor is a queer Australian storyteller born in Hong Kong of Cantonese and Teochew-Malaysian background, interested in telling character driven stories that explore experiences on the margins and intersections.

He had spent 5+ years leading the LGBTQ+ employee network at a tech company where he worked, focusing on raising awareness on queer youth and intersectional issues. He wrote to Freely Flourish in 2021 in response to the destructive impact of the 2017 Marriage Equality debate on many diaspora communities in Australia.

During his career break in 2024, he decided to bring this film to fruition as a queer Asian led project, together with experienced cinematographer Jude Ella, who is trans and of Filipino background, as co-producers. They hope to inspire healing and LGBTQ+ progress in our various diaspora communities through telling this hopeful story depicting how our communities only need to look to our own people, communities and culture as inspiration for how to embrace our queer young people.

Host or Publisher To Freely Flourish production