Courtesy of 10s Across the Borders
At QCinema, a documentary spotlights the communities reshaping queer visibility through movement, resistance, and chosen family.
In 10s Across the Borders, screening at this year’s QCinema, filmmaker Sze-Wei Chan follows three trailblazers, Aurora Sun Labeija, Teddy Oricci, and Xyza Pinklady Mizrahi, whose passion for ballroom culture sparked regional movements across Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The hybrid documentary, interweaving observational storytelling with dance sequences, traces their journeys as they build communities.
Ballroom, whose roots lie in Black and Latinx queer culture in New York, becomes in Chan’s hands a lens for understanding how marginalized bodies survive and thrive in Southeast Asia. As they told Vogue Philippines, the project began in 2017 when Sun asked Chan if they would document ballroom culture in the region. “I didn’t need to think,” Chan recalled with a laugh. What followed was a seven-year journey following shifting communities and a sense of purpose.
The film captures how each protagonist roots ballroom within their own cultural context. In Manila, Xyza, the founder of the Philippine ballroom scene, describes her first encounters with voguing as research for a movement that honored her femininity after years in competitive street dance. When she began teaching and organizing balls in 2015-2016, no one knew what ballroom was. She personally funded events, brought in regional judges, and slowly introduced categories and histories with the care of someone stewarding borrowed culture. “I had to be very respectful,” she says. “The intention was always to share the feeling of being welcomed.”
In Thailand, Sun reflects on how ballroom helped him reconcile a diasporic identity shaped by growing up between Norway and Thailand. Through fashion, movement, and performance, he weaves together Thai aesthetics, Buddhist philosophies, and ballroom’s expressive lineage. “I wanted the Thai kids to know we have a beautiful culture,” he says, noting how ballroom becomes a path toward decolonizing aesthetics and reclaiming pride.
Malaysia’s ballroom scene faces the most precarious terrain. For Teddy, building a community meant risking arrest in a country where homosexuality remains criminalized. He recounts police raids, fear, and the difficulty of moving within a Muslim-majority society. Yet his dedication persists: “This is the space to experience how to be a star,” he says.
Making the documentary was its own odyssey. Chan, a first-time feature filmmaker, speaks openly about the overwhelm: constant travel, lack of funding, and the emotional labor of protecting their subjects. “We weren’t sure we would finish so many times,” they admit. But the trust built with Sun, Teddy, and Xyza sustained it.
When the film premiered at the Busan International Film Festival, the reaction was immediate and heartfelt. Audience members approached the cast for autographs; festival-goers referred to them as actors, a term Xyza never imagined would apply to her. Teddy, meanwhile, basked unapologetically in the spotlight: “I always dream about this… I want to walk the red carpet,” he says with humor and pride.
Beyond documenting their personal journeys, 10s Across the Borders also illuminates the activists within them. In the Philippines, Xyza and local houses collaborate with organizations supporting trans health and the LGBTQIA+ youth. In Thailand, Sun mentors younger dancers and advocates for mental health among trailblazers themselves. Teddy, meanwhile, continues pushing against stigma in Malaysia, embodying courage simply by being visible.
For Chan, the film’s future includes a festival run across Asia, Australia, and, hopefully, Europe, with dreams of theatrical releases in cities like Manila, Bangkok, and Dagupan. In some countries, censorship may make screenings impossible, but the team is finding ways to bring the film to ballroom communities worldwide.
Asked what joy means to them after years of building and sustaining communities, each responds differently. Sun turns to Buddhist teachings: joy must come from within, he says, or ballroom alone cannot carry you. Xyza finds joy in seeing her “kids” become leaders, the next generation who will shape Philippine ballroom long after she steps back. Teddy, never one to dim his light, celebrates the simple act of being seen.
10s Across the Borders captures what ballroom has always offered: a space where marginalized people create their legitimacy and belonging, across identities, across nations, across borders.
