Queer East Festival will take over London's cinemas, theatres, and community spaces from Wednesday, April 23rd to Sunday, May 18th.
The festival will showcase boundary-pushing LGBTQ+ filmmakers and artists from East and Southeast Asia and its diaspora communities, amplifying Asian voices in visual arts, theatre, performance, and literature.
There will be screenings in venues such as BFI Southbank, ICA London, Rio Cinema, The Place, The Barbican, and QUEERCIRCLE.
Highlights of the film programme include Crazy Love (Michio Okabe, 1968), an avant-garde cult classic documenting the radical spirit of Japan’s creative and artistic scene in Shinjuku in the 1960s, and We Are Here (Zhao Jing, Shi Tou, 2015), a heartfelt documentary on lesbian advocacy.
For its debut live theatre presentation, the festival hosts the international premiere of When the cloud catches colours, at The Pit, Barbican (Thursday, April 24th to Saturday, April 26th), led by Singaporean theatremaker Chng Yi Kai.
Queer East’s dance programme returns to The Place, with aWokening by Hong Kong-Canadian artist Winnie Ho (Friday, May16th).
The new literature programme will feature talks from author Xuanlin Tham on Revolutionary Desires, and Chi Ta-Wei on his 1995 queer sci-fi novel The Membranes, an intergenerational conversation between Chi Ta-Wei, Eric Yip (Exposure), and Ewen Ma (Where the World Goes Sharp and Quiet), exploring the shifting landscape of queer writing in Asia, and Queering Objects II, a poetry workshop hosted by National Poetry Competition winner Eric Yip.
The Expanded programme, as the name suggests, expands how audiences can experience film, blending screenings with workshops, performances, and interactive viewing.
The festival will showcase boundary-pushing LGBTQ+ filmmakers and artists from East and Southeast Asia and its diaspora communities, amplifying Asian voices in visual arts, theatre, performance, and literature.
There will be screenings in venues such as BFI Southbank, ICA London, Rio Cinema, The Place, The Barbican, and QUEERCIRCLE.
Highlights of the film programme include Crazy Love (Michio Okabe, 1968), an avant-garde cult classic documenting the radical spirit of Japan’s creative and artistic scene in Shinjuku in the 1960s, and We Are Here (Zhao Jing, Shi Tou, 2015), a heartfelt documentary on lesbian advocacy.
The festival’s opening event at BFI will be the UK premiere of historical epic Kubi (Takeshi Kitano, 2023), and the closing screening at ICA will be the UK premiere of South Korean transgender documentary, Edhi Alice (Ilrhan Kim, 2024).
Cross-disciplinary group exhibition { guttural },,,{ fleshless } at QUEERCIRCLE will be open to the public from Saturday, April 26 to Saturday, May 17th.
Cross-disciplinary group exhibition { guttural },,,{ fleshless } at QUEERCIRCLE will be open to the public from Saturday, April 26 to Saturday, May 17th.
The multi-sensory exhibition blurs the lines between spectator, witness, and participant, presenting works across prose, drawing, sculptural installation, painting, and computer games.
Curated by Aki Hassan and april forrest lin 林森, participating artists include painters Bontyanak, Oscar Chan Yik Long, speculative gamemaker Dri Chiu Tattersfield, and performers Clarinda Tse and ZULAA.
Alongside curator tours, artist talks, and playthroughs, activations in the space include an acupressure workshop.
For its debut live theatre presentation, the festival hosts the international premiere of When the cloud catches colours, at The Pit, Barbican (Thursday, April 24th to Saturday, April 26th), led by Singaporean theatremaker Chng Yi Kai.
When the cloud catches colours explores the experience of two queer Singaporeans as they grow older, a timely reflection on queer resilience after Singapore repealed the British colonial law criminalising sex between adult males, in 2023.
Queer East’s dance programme returns to The Place, with aWokening by Hong Kong-Canadian artist Winnie Ho (Friday, May16th).
The show blends physical performance, immersive scenography, and sensory dramaturgy. The artist uses the concept of wok chi (鑊氣) - the fleeting energy of wok cooking as a metaphor for her diasporic and queer identity.
The new literature programme will feature talks from author Xuanlin Tham on Revolutionary Desires, and Chi Ta-Wei on his 1995 queer sci-fi novel The Membranes, an intergenerational conversation between Chi Ta-Wei, Eric Yip (Exposure), and Ewen Ma (Where the World Goes Sharp and Quiet), exploring the shifting landscape of queer writing in Asia, and Queering Objects II, a poetry workshop hosted by National Poetry Competition winner Eric Yip.
The Expanded programme, as the name suggests, expands how audiences can experience film, blending screenings with workshops, performances, and interactive viewing.
Highlights include: Queered Out! At Museum of the Home, which includes a screening of We *KNEAD* to talk (Nandal Seo, 2024), which highlights shared culinary traditions of dumpling-making, followed by a workshop on food and queerness.
Things and Tingling, a midnight event at Rio Cinema, lingers on the desire for material fetishism, opening up the political, historical, industrial and emotional conditions of fetishisation, the evening will feature screenings alongside a live Shibari performance.
Steamy Intimacies is back for a second year, presenting Taiwanese maverick Shu Lea Cheang’s early films followed by a long night’s unwinding in a sauna.
For tickets and details go to queereast.org.uk.
