Reading-as-Lesbian and Desiring-as-Lesbian: The commodification of kilig and coming-of-age in Samantha Lee’s Billie and Emma (2018)

In 2018, Samantha Lee’s second movie Billie and Emma was screened in the QC International Film Festival. I watched it during the pandemic and had since been arrested by its portrayal and narrative of lesbian and queer teens. In this paper, I argue that Samantha Lee’s Billie and Emma (2018) offers a subversive narrative of lesbians by using kilig as affect enveloped in a coming-of-age narrative. By deploying Wilton (the lesbian as subject position) and Berlant (fantasy/desire), I will discuss how Billie and Emma (2018) subverts the lens of heterosexuality/heteronormativity seen in most lesbian films both in the western and local production vis-a-vis the danger of commodifying kilig and coming-of-age as affect and narrative structure. In underscoring the importance of the lesbian as a subject-position, this paper aims to contribute to the expanding field of lesbian criticism and lesbian studies.