Our Art House 101: Global Queer Cinema series is headed to the Philippines for one of the most daring and influential films in the country’s queer cinema history: Macho Dancer.

After being expelled from the military, a young man named Pol leaves his provincial home for Manila, where he finds work as a macho dancer in a seedy nightclub. But beneath the glitter and spectacle of the club lies a dangerous world of exploitation, drugs, prostitution, and corruption. As Pol becomes increasingly entangled in the lives of the men and women around him, his search for survival becomes inseparable from a society rotting beneath the surface.

Directed by Lino Brocka, one of the giants of Philippine cinema, Macho Dancer is a provocative film about sexuality and political oppression. Made during the final years of Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship, Brocka uses the world of male sex work to expose the desperation and corruption of a society where virtually everything, including the concept of desire itself, can become a commodity. Come support this landmark of Filipino queer cinema and a powerful act of cinematic resistance on the big screen.

Our Spielberg Summer series turns its attention to one of the most powerful and influential war films ever made with Saving Private Ryan, a landmark achievement that forever changed how combat is portrayed on screen.

In the aftermath of the D-Day invasion, Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and his squad are assigned an extraordinary mission: locate Private James Ryan (Matt Damon), whose brothers have all been killed in action, and bring him home. As the soldiers journey deeper into war-torn France, the mission forces each man to confront difficult questions about the value of a single life amid unimaginable loss.

Famous for its visceral opening depiction of Omaha Beach, Saving Private Ryan goes far beyond just technical brilliance. Spielberg combines staggering realism with his signature humanism, creating a film that honors both the chaos of war and the ordinary people “asked” to endure it.