Once a year, when my mind finally catches up with my sprinting body, I check my mother’s Facebook. Navigating her page has the same numbing reflexiveness as reciting the national anthem. I dash around the “remembering” logo, go to the photo album, and watch my life unfold before me.

In one of the most striking scenes of Promare (2019), the first feature-length film from Japanese studio Trigger, the city of Promepolis is under attack. The city’s dull gray buildings, reduced to lifeless shapes under a moon-and-starless night, have suddenly erupted into eye-burning neon fire.

As a lesbian who aspires to be a filmmaker, I have always questioned my relationship with film.