Beyond The Fire: The Life of Japan’s First Pride Parade Pioneer | BFI Flare 2026
An informative, important documentary, serving as an open window into an experience not yet shared with the wider world.
Japan is likely fairly low down on the list of locations that are considered when the topic of queer history is discussed, evading the high ranks of places like San Francisco, New York, and London, but ‘Beyond The Fire: The Life of Japan’s First Pride Parade Pioneer’ has arrived to incite a change. The eponymous Pride Parade Pioneer is Teishiro Minami, an integral figure within Japan’s LGTBQ+ history. Minami is responsible for Japan’s first-ever pride parade, held in 1994 and organised by himself and a handful of other volunteers, at the age of sixty-two. He’s now in his nineties. The documentary, coming in at just under two hours, invites viewers on a journey through Minami’s colourful life.
At the screening I attended - which was also the film’s world premiere - director Hiroaki Matsuoka was in attendance from Japan to introduce his documentary, marked as the first film focused entirely on Japan’s queer history. Matsuoka assures the audience that this is not a film depicting the gleaming life of a perfect person, marked by glowing personal reviews of all who know him. This is a truthful film about Teishiro Minami - an impassioned activist, who, by many accounts, has lived a full life, been touched by tragedy, and inevitably made mistakes along the way.
The film is split into five chapters of Minami’s life, beginning with his upbringing in Akita, Japan, and his move to bustling Tokyo in his early twenties, where he discovered a vibrant gay scene. We follow Minami’s early adulthood through attempts at various careers, including copywriting and radio work, but social activism is clearly where his passion lies. In one interview, a colleague of Minami’s, with whom he began distributing a successful magazine dedicated to Japan’s gay community, said that Minami seems morally obligated to be a gay rights activist. He does so effortlessly, gliding from project to project with no time for thought. This, however, is mentioned as a negative aspect of Minami’s personality by members of his varied cohorts: he acts before thinking, fueled by enthusiasm and passion for social justice, which, when working within groups of volunteers who, of course, had voices too, led to conflict. Interviews about Minami’s achievements and mistakes are not only conducted with Minami’s circle of friends, but also with people he’s met over the years who may not have agreed with all of his actions. There’s no singular narrative in this film - we see Minami from all perspectives, leading to an earnest, believable account of a man’s life.
The film is interspersed with stunning animations denoting scenes from Minami’s life (director Hiroaki Matsuoka informs us that these eighty animations were hand-drawn) as well as archival footage from pride parades and photographs depicting Minami’s enthusiastic forays into various social movements.
Minami himself is interviewed in the present day. He’s clearly mellowed in his maturity - a stark contrast to the stories of his younger years ,when he had an idea to do something and simply did it, fueled by fire, the controller at the top of the hierarchical social pyramid. Minami is blessed with the art of successful self-reflection, looking back at his life and recognising his achievements. He is wise, not ignorant, towards the mistakes he’s made, but armed with the correct realisation that regret is a waste of time.
All in all, Beyond The Fire is an informative, important documentary, serving as an open window into an experience not yet shared with the wider world. Although gay marriage is not legal in Japan, and there are not yet such things as anti-discrimination laws, the queer Japanese community continues to flourish - something that couldn’t have happened without the pioneering efforts of Teishiro Minami.
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