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.

A modern David and Goliath story, Call Her Ganda follows a cast of willful women as they take on some of the most powerful institutions in the world. Fusing personal tragedy, human rights activism and the little known history, and complex aftermath, of U.S. imperial rule in the Philippines, Call Her Ganda forges a visually daring and profoundly humanistic geopolitical investigative exposé.

ReelQ: Pittsburgh’s International LGBTQ Film Festival

The Pittsburgh Lesbian and Gay Film Society serves the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities in Pittsburgh and the surrounding tri-state region. In addition, PLGFS provides a crucial service to the cultural vitality of Pittsburgh, designed to support lesbian and gay artists, and to provide a much-needed cultural outlet for the lesbian and gay communities in Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas.