When 26-year old Filipina transgender woman and alleged sex worker, Jennifer Laude, is found dead with her head plunged into a motel room toilet, the perpetrator is quickly identified as 19-year-old U.S. marine Joseph Scott Pemberton.
A military recruit in an unfamiliar land, Pemberton was on “liberty leave” when he solicited Jennifer at a disco.
On discovering that Jennifer was transgender, he brutally murdered her, leaving her to be found by her friend and the motel receptionist.
Amidst a media storm and police inquiry, as Jennifer’s family copes with their loss, three women intimately invested in the case, pursue justice—taking on hardened histories of U.S. imperial rule that have allowed previous American perpetrators to evade consequence: An activist attorney, Virgie Suarez, who labors to reveal the truth of Jennifer’s death from inside the courtroom, despite strategic silences and sly legal maneuvers from Pemberton’s defense team.
A transgender investigative journalist Meredith Talusan, who is determined to bring international attention to the case, writing sharp, in-the-fray essays for VICE, The Guardian and Buzzfeed. And Jennifer’s normally reserved mother, Julita, who finds herself at the effective center of a political uprising, inciting fellow protesters with a tenacious voice she never knew existed.
These three women from different backgrounds from an amazingly powerful bond to galvanize a political uprising, while seeking justice for Jennifer and taking on the hardened continuing history of U.S. imperialism in the Philippines.
For openly gay Filipino American filmmaker PJ Raval, CALL HER GANDA is one of his most personal film projects.
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| Jennifer's most recent photo sits on her mother's desk as a memory in a scene from the film CALL HER GANDA - a film by PJ Raval. (Photo Courtesy of Unraval Pictures) |
CALL HER GANDA
In Theaters Only
New York September 21,
Los Angeles September 28,
San Francisco October 5,
National Roll Out To Follow
CALL HER GANDA FILM FESTIVALS
Tribeca Film Festival; Hot Docs; Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival; Frameline SF; Outfest LA; DMZ Docs – Korea; Doc Edge – New Zealand; Inside Out Toronto LGBTQ Film Festival; and more.
