Queer East Festival: On The Road will head out across the country from September to December, offering its biggest tour yet and showcasing a remarkable line-up of contemporary feature films, documentaries and shorts as well as special events that highlight a wide range of LGBTQ+ stories from East Asia, Southeast Asia and their diaspora communities.
Founded in response to the systemic lack of East and Southeast Asian representation on stage, screen and behind the scenes, Queer East Festival was formed in 2020 and has made its mark across the UK with its bold programmes of LGBTQ+ cinema and visual arts, growing in popularity and size year-on-year, and celebrating its fifth anniversary this year.
Queer East Festival’s ground-breaking film programme challenges conventions and stereotypes giving audiences an opportunity to explore the contemporary queer landscape across East and Southeast Asia. With its fifth anniversary edition, Queer East Festival reaffirms a commitment to diversifying the cultural landscape in the UK, and to serving as a platform that nurtures dialogue on the multifaceted understandings of what it means to be Asian and queer today.
The nationwide tour will bring highlights of its programme to Exeter, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Edinburgh, Brighton, Liverpool, Cambridge, Bradford, Sheffield, Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, Kent, Leicester, Belfast and Nottingham.
In addition to the film programme the tour will include a series of special events including film introductions and Q&As, panel discussions, networking events and more, plus unique collaborations with local institutions.
Film highlights will include:
A Song Sung Blue (China, 2023)
Nominated for the Queer Palm and Golden Camera at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, A Song Sung Blue follows lonely, 15-year-old Xian as she experiences a summer she will never forget. When her mother moves away for work, Xian moves in with her free spirited photographer father and a restless summer ensues when she becomes infatuated with his assistant’s daughter, the extroverted Mingmei. A Song Sung Blue is the feature debut from acclaimed short film director Geng Zihan (A Ray of Sunshine, 2019; Green Screen, 2021), and features vivid cinematography, exceptional performances from Kay Huang and Jing Liang, and is a testament to the innocence and impulses of youth, which signals the arrival of a powerful new voice in queer cinema.
Bye Bye Love (Japan, 1974)
Until the discovery of a film negative in a warehouse in 2018, Bye Bye Love was long considered lost, but this new print gives audiences a rare chance to revisit this radical work of 1970s Japanese cinema, which recalls the 1969 queer classic Funeral Parade of Roses. Following two young people, Utamaro and Giko, on a doomed summer road trip through Japan, this poetic, surreal work reflects on the dissipating promise of 1960s counterculture and free love, transcending gender, sexuality and the body. With a blend of stylistic influences from the French New Wave and American New Cinema along with a rethinking of Japanese artistic traditions, conventional understandings are challenged through a queer lens, adding to the political charge of this rediscovered classic.
The Last Year of Darkness (China, USA, 2023)
Ben Mullinkosson’s (Don’t Be a Dick About It) coming-of age documentary is a love letter to the Chengdu underground scene. With construction cranes looming, the future of queer-friendly techno club Funky Town is unclear, leaving party goers forced to make the most of their remaining time there.
I Am What I Am (Japan, 2022)
Toko Miura (Drive My Car) delivers a riveting performance as Kasumi, a young asexual woman who challenges the notion of falling in love after her mother pressures her to get married. From award-winning writer and director Tamada Shinya, this compelling drama offers a rare depiction of asexual identity and the difficulties of having no romantic feelings in a world where love rules supreme.
The River (Taiwan, 1997)
Tsai Ming-liang is one of the most celebrated ‘Second New Wave’ film directors of Taiwanese cinema and his shockingly subversive family drama centres around the disintegration of a troubled family after a young man is suddenly struck by debilitating neck pain. Shot in Tsai’s signature minimalist style and starring his muse Lee Kang-Sheng, who has appeared in many of Tsai’s groundbreaking films including Rebels of the Neon God and Good Bye, Dragon Inn, this controversial work confirmed the director’s place as a uniquely rebellious voice in LGBTQ+ cinema, offering a sly, queer critique of the nuclear family and the values it represents.
Love Bound (UK, 2024)
Shanshan Chen integrates animation and anecdotes in her documentary centering on the journey of Qiuyan Chen who became an unexpected celebrity after suing the Chinese Government over homophobic textbooks. After moving to the UK to escape her suffocating family and government pressure, her life takes an unexpected turn when she meets Bling who has to return to China. Determined to reunite and build a life together, Qiuyan embarks on a challenging journey to bring Bling back to the UK.
The Missing (Philippines, Thailand, 2023)
Carl Joseph E. Papa’s film tells the story of mute animator Eric who, when looking for his missing uncle, unwittingly provokes the appearance of a familiar, sinister UFO, and the untangling of traumatic memories. This outstanding animation depicts the psychological journey of a mouthless character who must face up to that which cannot be spoken.
Asog (Philippines, 2023)
Incorporating documentary and fictional elements, this screwball tragicomedy stars a cast of real-life survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda, focusing on Jaya, a non-binary schoolteacher and comedian who travels across the Philippines in the hopes of winning a beauty pageant, with Adam McKay (Succession, The Big Short) and Alan Cumming (The Good Wife, Goldeneye) serving as executive producers.
