Coming to multiple virtual cinemas on July 1, 2020, the new documentary Denise Ho: Becoming the Song focuses on the queer Cantopop superstar. In 2017, director Sue Williams started following Denise Ho as she toured the UK and North America. The film is in English and Cantonese, with English subtitles.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Discovered by legendary Cantopop songstress and actress Anita Mui in her teens in a singing contest, Denise Ho became one of Mui’s disciples and songwriters before her solo career started to rise. She came out to the world as a proud lesbian in 2012 at the Hong Kong Pride Parade, the first major female star in Hong Kong to come out as gay. In 2014, at the height of her career, she started to publicly support the students who were demanding free elections during the Umbrella Movement (protesters held up umbrellas to fight off tear gas). Her influential involvement at the forefront of the pro-democracy uprisings led to her arrest during a clearing of protest camps. The financial and social cost to her was enormous. She was blacklisted by Mainland China, her music banned. As a result major commercial and luxury sponsors like Lancôme dropped her, colleagues feared to be associated with her, and venues around the world to this day are afraid to allow her to perform.
