Desiree Lim (born 1971) is a Malaysian-born Canadian independent film director, producer, and screenwriter. She is known for her films ''Sugar Sweet'' (2001), ''Floored by Love'' (2005), and ''The House'' (2011). Lim tends to work within the realm of family drama and comedy, and highlights themes of

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

ism, multiculturalism, and body positivity. She now works in Canada and Japan.

Early life and education

Born in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

in 1971, Lim grew up speaking

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

and

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

. Her parents are Chinese and had moved to her birthplace from mainland China and Hong Kong. In school, she became a skilled

kendo is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords ( shinai) as well as protective armor ( bōgu). It began as samurai warriors' customary swordsmanship ex ...

practitioner. Upon graduating from high school, she moved to

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

to study at

Sophia University Sophia University (Japanese language, Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private List of Jesuit educational institutions, Jesuit research university in Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1913 by ...

, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism. After finishing university, she began working on news and documentary films with the broadcasting company Asahi Broadcasting Network in Tokyo as an associate producer and director. She did not move back to Malaysia after her education, due to the lack of

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic Media (communication), media, especially publication, published materials, shoul ...

there.

Career

Lim made her first independent short film, ''Closet is for Clothes'', in Tokyo, where it was shown at the 1995 Tokyo Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. This festival provided Lim with the opportunity to jump-start her career, as she received an award for her film. This was the beginning of her career as an independent filmmaker. Six years later she created her first feature-length film, ''Sugar Sweet'', in which she described her coming out as a queer filmmaker. Following the release of this film, she moved to

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada, having been frustrated by the production company's marketing of ''Sugar Sweet'' and inspired by the positive reaction it received in North America, particularly by Vancouver's artistic community. Her films have been highly successful at

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

s, where showings have frequently sold out. Her latest film, a psychological thriller set in Vancouver and featuring Vancouver actors, called ''The House'' (2011), received the Best Canadian Feature Film award at the 2012

Female Eye Film Festival The Female Eye Film Festival (FeFF) is a competitive international film festival established in 2001. It is Toronto’s only international film festival geared specifically for women directors. History In 2001, Female Eye Film Festival was est ...

Notable films

''Sugar Sweet'' (2001)

Perhaps Lim's most popular work, ''Sugar Sweet'' is an erotic comedy that plays with the straight male ideas of what lesbian porn looks like. It is the first erotic film in Japan that was both made for and by queer women. Starring Saori Kitagawa as Naomi, this film follows the story of a lesbian filmmaker who is hired by a straight porn company to create authentic lesbian films, only to have them deemed "too artistic". She is instructed to take a more conventional pornographic route. The film takes on techniques such as the full–body shot and blur to appeal to the "lesbian gaze" rather than the

male gaze In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world in the visual arts and in literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosex ...

. ''Sugar Sweet'' was originally released in Japan and was meant to be marketed as having been created by a queer woman for other queer women. Despite this, advertising for the film switched to target heterosexual men, using fetishistic images of lesbians, as there was thought to be a bigger market for the film in this demographic. The film was well-received in North America, where screenings of up to 600 people were sold out. It was shown in various cities with prolific queer film festivals, and was also featured in over 50 film festivals in North America. The marketing gimmicks and the film's success in North America were both significant factors in Lim's decision to move to Vancouver in 2002.

''Floored By Love'' (2005)

This work by Lim was a part of the ''Eight Stories About Love'' series on the Canadian television network

Citytv Citytv (sometimes shortened to City, which was the network's official branding from 2012 to 2018) is a Television in Canada, Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The network consis ...

. A comedic family drama, it tells the story of a multicultural queer relationship between two women, and the issues they face when the parents of the protagonist, Cara, visit, and later when they come out as a couple. Written after the legalization of same-sex marriage, it deals with issues of marriage, Asian diaspora, gender performance, and coming out.

''The House'' (2011)

''The House'' is inspired by former Wall Street worker

Nomi Prins Nomi Prins is an American economist, author, journalist, and public speaker who writes about Wall Street and the US economy. Before becoming a journalist and public speaker, Prins worked in the finance industry. She was a managing director at Go ...

, who exposed the fraudulence and failings of

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

. It looks at how working in the world of Wall Street has affected the protagonist, a woman named Jean. It is a cross-genre of drama, thriller, and the paranormal, as Jean must go on a journey of self-discovery. Upon quitting her high-level investment job, a friend lends her an empty house in Vancouver, where she encounters and interacts with the spirits who inhabit there. ''The House'' won Best Screenwriting and Best Performance at the Vancouver Women in Film Festival and was awarded Best Canadian Feature at the

Inspiration

From birth, Lim's identity as a transmigrant Asian woman influenced the way she saw the world. Though she was born and had lived in Malaysia, then later Japan, she seldom saw Asian faces represented in media during her childhood, declaring that all the faces on her TV screen were those of white people. This drove her to create her own representation of people like herself. Lim's goal with her works is to create more positive and diverse representations of Asian women, and to tell the stories of those with intersecting queer-Asian identities. Her inspiration is not derived from a role model, but rather the lack thereof in her life. The aim of her work is to challenge taboo topics and to empower her audience; in this regard, she considers her films to be forms of

activism Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from ...

Personal life

Lim is fluent in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and Malay.

Filmography

Film

* 1995: ''Closet is for Clothes'' * 1999: ''Disposable Lez'' * 1999: ''Dyke: Just Be It'' * 2001: ''Eroticism'' * 2003: ''Salty Wet'' – director (Short film) * 2005: ''Out For Bubble Tea'' – director, producer, writer (Short film) * 2005: ''Some Real Fangs'' – director, producer, writer (Short film) * 2011: ''The House'' – director, producer, writer

Television

* 2001: ''Natural Mystery: Health & Hypnosis'' – associate producer (TV documentary) * 2001: ''Sugar Sweet'' – director, writer (TV movie) * 2005: ''Floored By Love'' – director, producer, writer (TV movie)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lim, Desiree 1971 births Living people Canadian women film directors Malaysian women film directors Canadian LGBTQ film directors Canadian queer women Canadian people of Chinese descent Canadian lesbian writers Malaysian emigrants to Canada Malaysian lesbians Film directors from Vancouver Writers from Vancouver Sophia University alumni Date of birth missing (living people) Canadian LGBTQ screenwriters Canadian women screenwriters Asian-Canadian filmmakers Lesbian screenwriters Canadian lesbian artists 21st-century Malaysian LGBTQ people 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Screenwriters from British Columbia Malaysian film directors