Disney Launchpad is the American multinational entertainment company's short film incubator program. Its stated motivation is to "build a more inclusive entertainment industry". Young directors have the opportunity, in this incubator of audiovisual projects, to be seen and to assert themselves.
Moxie Peng is a writer and director from Hunan, China, and is one of the creators of the 6 pieces that make up the first season of Launchpadwhich is broadcasted on Disney+. Peng declares himself a non-binary queer filmmaker, and the subjects he portrays tend to be the working class, immigrant ethnic minorities and the queer community, addressing the relationships between them. He began filming in Beijing and now lives between New York and Los Angeles.
The Little Prince(ss) is Moxie's contribution to this series of short films. A sweet, dramatic and realistic story about the friendship between two young children from China. Peng has poured into this short film your own personal history. A vital experience that would make him see the love and respect that his father would show him by confronting a neighbor for him.
Moxie's 19-minute work addresses one of the most important elements of the movement. queer since its foundation. Visibility. When one sees the short film, one can only feel a certain level of frustration at the discourse on "normality"The protagonist's neighbor does.
The normal, the standard, has always been the workhorse of the gay movement. Since the 50's of the last century, the movement tried to make a place in the social agenda, but they were always pushed aside, arguing that their acts were abnormal, it was not normal to be gay. And what was not normal could not have its place in society. From there would emerge the Pride movementas a result of the Stonewall incidentswhere he faced that normality with the diversity.
The discourse would change from the ".we are normal" a "embrace diversity". I am not the one who should "become"In the standard, it is up to you to accept diversity. Colors, flags, parades, demonstrations and parties in open spaces. From hiding to dazzling. All with one goal in mind: to make it easier for the new generations to be themselves.
This objective of self-awareness and self-respectThis is what has brought us to the present moment, where, with all its ups and downs, young people can live in greater emotional freedom. And where, with a certain air of pique, some see how the queer movement continues to grow in acronyms. Acronyms that show how diversity continues to grow, not because it has always been there, but because it has always been there. becoming more visible.
The story of Moxie Peng is not a criticism of the neighbor who is annoyed because a 7-year-old boy acts freely in a feminine way. The story, as the director tells us in the "making-off"is a plea for letting children be free to be whoever they want to be.
I wanted to emphasize how our values have been imposed on us. That neighbor who humiliated me and my family was a victim of his own narrow-mindedness. He was not one of those who hates everyone. He was a victim of the generational traumas he had carried with him. The great thing about children is that they don't have that filter. They let everyone show themselves as they are much better than adults. Because they don't have that prejudice, they support each other.
It is also a message, not only for the Gabriel's who need support, but also for Rob. Let them know that it's okay if they like a friend for being the way he is.
Moxie Peng
The short film The Little Prince(ss) from Moxie Peng can be enjoyed through the Disney+ streaming service within the series. Disney Launchpad.
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