Films are one of life’s simplest pleasures. We obviously choose to spend our time watching them for a plethora of reasons—inspiration, escapism, and at the very least, entertainment. But even the most straightforward of narratives come with all the memories and emotions we’ve come to associate with them seeping between the lines.

Films are also more importantly an urgent vessel for social discourse and cultural translation, an instrument in understanding the complexities of art, sex, society, and everything in between.

Being queer in Singapore is tricky. The state toes the line of neither supporting nor fully condemning the queer community (for the purpose of this feature, queer and LGBTQ+ will be used interchangeably), providing no sex education to encourage such exploration in public schools. Public opinion over same-sex relationships is also deeply divided here, where gay sex is still technically illegal under a colonial-era law and government policies promote the formation of heterosexual nuclear families.

So for many young queer Singaporeans who, like most of us, have grown up glued to all sorts of screens, seeing aspects themselves depicted on the big screen can be a mixture of extreme emotions. Exhilaration, confusion, catharsis are words that were tossed around when talking about witnessing their unfamiliar desires portrayed in popular media before they could even find a word to describe them.

As the rainbow makes it last rounds this June, I made an attempt at deciphering the intersection of queer identity and film. Speaking to an array of young, queer Singaporeans from across the vast spectrum of gender and sexuality, I try to shift the focus and take them back to that “Eureka!” moment—when everything finally fell into place in their heads (or maybe just ignited a fire); when these films stood out like a neon light in a dark alleyway. And in return, they’ve offered me, and by extension all of you, what feels like intimate glimpses into the back pages of their diaries—doodles, magazine clippings, frantic scribblings and all.

From arthouse to teen comedy, these young queer folks have, in their own unique way, found a means to affirm their multifaceted identities, no matter how small the impact. Because navigating the labyrinth of queer sexuality and gender, just like the distinct narratives of the following films, has never, and will never be straightforward.

The rainbow is a prism, after all.