<i>How the Room Felt</i> begins with a poem by Audre Lorde, a Black feminist poet and lesbian activist. The room, which is as warm as the quoted verse but is not also free, is located in a Georgian city and becomes the home of various non-binary queer people who play soccer. There, they smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, party, laugh, chat, kiss, take care of each other, and make love. And often they are enraged and saddened, exchange hurtful words, and are unable to resist anxiety. This small hidden community, invisible from the outside, seems at first glance to be a closet for the queer, but it is the only safe space and one’s own room an overwhelmingly homophobic Georgian society. The camera, while residing in this space, always focuses on recording trivial moments and private conversations between individuals. In addition, unlike general documentary styles, the film maintains an observational attitude without utilizing interviews or dramatic conflicts. At the same time, however, rather than observational distancing, the director’s camera exists intimately like air, where a sense of distance from the subject is not felt, just as in Nan Goldin’s documentary photographs. Through this intimacy, it conveys bonds of friendship and love, alienation and confusion, just as they are. [KIM Kyungmook]