What happens when an asexual girl is thrown into a room of horny teens preaching celibacy?
“Welcome to Celibacy Club,” a USC student-produced short film seeks to answer that, using comedy to shed light on the experiences of asexual individuals as they attempt to find — and create — their community. Screening at the TCL Chinese Theatre for the Outfest Fusion Film Festival in Hollywood this weekend, the film is a testament to the tenacity of diverse student filmmakers to tell queer stories.
“Welcome to Celibacy Club” is a short film written by sophomore screenwriting majors Nina Lu and Murleve Roberts and directed by senior communication major Campbell Moore. The project, executed by a cast and crew of entirely underrepresented groups, follows Emmy, an asexual girl who tries to find her community by joining her high school’s celibacy club. Upon joining, Emmy soon learns that identifying as asexual is not the same as choosing to be celibate, or abstaining from having sex. According to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that’s dedicated to suicide prevention and crisis intervention among LGBTQ+ youth, asexuality is a gender identity that exists on a spectrum, one where asexual people — or “ace” for short — “may have little interest in having sex, even though they desire emotionally intimate relationships.”
As the film progresses, Emmy is surprised to find that the school’s celibacy club is not full of asexual students, but rather “the horniest of the horny.” As Emmy grapples with the “‘Virginity Rocks’ shirt wearing church boys’ in the club,” she learns to embrace rather than conceal her asexual identity, fighting for her community in the process.
Abitha Nunis, a sophomore majoring in theater, plays Emmy. They said that through the film, they hope audiences can understand the difference between celibacy and asexuality.
“There’s never one way to be queer, so don’t rush it,” Nunis said. “Have fun trying to figure out who you are, but also acknowledge that there’s people around you to support you.”
Nunis, who identifies as demisexual — or “someone who only experiences sexual attraction once they form a strong emotional connection with another person,” according to the Trevor Project — said they strongly resonated with Emmy. Particularly because the film’s cast and crew was entirely staffed by those from underrepresented groups, Nunis said that each team member shared a piece of the character, shaping Emmy into someone audiences can find comfort in.
This includes the film’s co-producer, Gina Phu, a sophomore majoring in cinema and media studies. As someone who identifies as ace, she said that growing up she struggled to see herself represented in the media: “Asexual and aromantic media is severely lacking in proper representation, causing a lot of adolescents and even young adults to feel lost, secluded, and distraught over their identity. I know I was.”
Hence, she strove to support media that did, working with co-producer Amanda Chen — a sophomore majoring in cinema and media studies major and minoring in entertainment industry — through Chen’s student-led production company, Yu Productions. Together, they made the film that Phu’s younger self would’ve appreciated.
When “Welcome to Celibacy Club” was chosen to premiere at the Outfest Fusion Festival, Chen said she was ecstatic. “There’s so many diverse films that don’t get put out on mainstream media because our world is just so for silencing queer voices,” she said. “I’m happy to put [queer people] on a stage and play a part in helping them get to this film festival.”
For Nunis, they said that the festival’s diverse agenda brought tears to their eyes.
“I saw a sea of brown queer people. I’d never been around so many queer POC and people who I felt safe around,” Nunis said. For them, Outfest showed them a community of queer artists who were unapologetically sharing their stories.
As the largest festival of its kind, the Outfest Fusion Festival is a program developed by the organization Outfest, which is the largest LGBTQIA+ film and media organization in the world. Dedicated to creating visibility for queer filmmakers, Outfest celebrated its 40th anniversary last July.
Patrick Ryan, the festival’s chief of staff and special projects manager, told Annenberg Media that Outfest aims to increase opportunities for queer BIPOC filmmakers, including the aspiring students behind “Welcome to Celibacy Club.”
“College age students figuratively and literally are the next generation of leaders,” he said. “They want to be able to bring their perspective and energy to the world. We highly encourage students to participate and look for more opportunities to increase engagement and create a pipeline for students to be able to share their work.”
Because the selection process is highly selective, Ryan added that having one’s film featured in the festival holds heavy weight. “There’s a lot of meaning behind that. So it’s really about just continuing to grow our programs and spread the word and showcase more films so that our fans can continue to create space to share these stories.”
Outfest isn’t the only organization taking notice of “Welcome to Celibacy Club.” USC’s Women of Cinematic Arts club, a pre-professional organization for USC’s female and non-binary film students, screened the film for its Feminist Media Festival in early March. The club’s co-chair of events, Olivia McBride — a communication major with minors in theater and musical theatre — said that as an organization that serves the female and non-binary student community, WCA saw the film’s potential to give voice to the asexual community.
Particularly when female and LGBTQ+ characters are still lacking in the industry — with the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative reporting that across 13 companies (including Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers), there were 0% LGBTQ leads and co-leads in 2019 films — McBride said that it’s necessary for LGBTQ+ characters to be both present and nuanced.
“For a very long time, any character that was characterized as LGBTQ was always viewed as sort of a caricature and completely stereotyped to be the like, silly, stupid, gay best friend,” McBride said. “I think that’s what’s so incredible about the new generation of filmmakers that are in school right now is they’re trying to share what it’s really like to be in the LGBTQ community and creating much more multi-dimensional characters.”
“They created this character that has struggles, had a sense of humor, and they did all of that in just a few minutes,” McBride added.
The cast and crew behind “Welcome to Celibacy Club” ultimately hopes to use the power of film to uplift queer stories in a space that often doesn’t make way for them.
“Working on a project that was centered on the part of my identity I hid away healed a lot of inner turmoil I didn’t even know I was having,” Phu said. “I had pushed away and rejected the idea of being ace for so long that seeing it celebrated on screen felt like a dream.”
“My high school self, who hated how she felt and thought she was a monster because she couldn’t ‘feel,’ started healing from how much love we were receiving. WTCC also showed me that I am capable,” Phu continued. “My participation in this project showed me that I have the strength to create media around my experiences and my identity and people will listen, people will relate, and people will love it.”
“Welcome to Celibacy Club” can be streamed on Outfest’s website on Wednesday, as the festival continues online until April 2.