Trailer for Sunday Beauty Queen.
For Filipinas, working overseas in Hong Kong brings financial opportunity but comes at a great cost. Most of the women work menial jobs, where the bedroom is just an extension of the kitchen. Many live in fear of being deported if they're out of work for more than 14 days. Over the course of four years, Filipino filmmaker Baby Ruth Villarama tracks the lives of five charismatic and courageous women who choose to reclaim their dignity by competing in a pageant that serves as a voice for the 190,000 Filipinas working in Hong Kong. One of those five women is Leo, a fiery lesbian who’s been organizing beauty pageants in Hong Kong since 2008, blazing a trail for the women who follow. Sunday Beauty Pageant is an empowering narrative that locates new voices among the growing body of work on migrant labour.