THE DUALITY OF FAMILY
IN RAZID SEASON’S ELIJAH
I watched Razid Season’s short film Elijah at the 2025 CUNY Macaulay Film Festival. Based on a true story, the film follows a young trans man in his struggle to come out to his trans-phobic Bengali-American immigrant parents.
The film moved me so much that I had to write a review and reach out to the director! The article was published in Muskoka 411.
“In a world where we yearn for acceptance as we are, outdated cultural beliefs and transphobia impose a narrative of who we should be, and coupled with economic disparity, violently tear us apart from our loved ones. ”
— Excerpt from “The Duality of Family in Razid Season’s Elijah”
short story: “GRAIN”
Lito, a young man full of hopes and dreams, takes on a new job to help support his family after his father’s failed harvest.
Witnessing the grit and determination of the ordinary working people as they eke out a living with their own hands, sweat, and blood, while faced with an oppressive regime and former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug war, inspired me to write this piece. For all Filipino farmers and working people, whose labor sustains the world, and for all the victims of Oplan Tokhang.
“Grain” was published in the 2025 Utopia Parkway Journal and was awarded the Claire Jacobs Award for a Short Story at the 2025 Queens College Undergraduate Writing Prizes.
“The sunburned skin accentuated this strong man’s wrinkles, which he had much around his eyes. This was how Lito learned to count as a child. His father would hold him up against the sun and Lito would trace his fingers against the crow’s feet on the smiling face and count. One . . . two . . . three . . . four. . . . His father’s face would break into a bigger grin.”
— Excerpt from “Grain”