5 movies to look out for at the Shanghai Queer Film Festival
Always a city for change, the inaugural Shanghai Queer Film Festival (SHQFF) will be making its debut this week, as the first fully independent LGBTQI+ festival in Mainland China. In an event that aims to engage, celebrate, and promote Chinese and Asian queer culture on screen, the free, non-profit event will be running from September 16-24
So what’s there to see? Grab your popcorn and kick back those heels while we run you through some of our top picks from this years selection:
1. Lan Yu (2001)
Country of production: Hong Kong, China.
When: Tuesday 19, 7pm.
Where: Kartel, 1 Xiangyang Bei Lu, near Julu Lu.
Lan Yu is a true queer classic as one of the first explicitly gay films in China. The film follows Chen Handong, a wealthy closeted entrepreneur, and his relationship with a poor student, Lan Yu. As their relationship develops, the couple’s difference in age and social standing creates a conflict in interest between Handong, who is simply looking for a sexual release behind closed doors, and Lan Yu who longs for something more.
Set in Beijing during the late 1980s, Lan Yu doesn’t skirt around political or cultural taboos or a attempt to dress up or fetishise its subject. It is quite simply a window into what it means to be gay in China, and an excellent introduction to Chinese queer cinema.
2. Tale of the Lost Boys (2017)
Country of production: Taiwan/Philippines.
When: Thursday 21, 7pm.
Where: ALL, 17 Xiangyang Bei Lu, near Changle Lu.
There’s always been something about gay men and their mothers, but Tale of the Lost Boys goes further than that. Set around an unexpected friendship between two men, TLB is a story of redemption. Alex, a Filipino who has just fled Manila leaving his girlfriend pregnant, meets Jerry, a Taiwanese aborigine student. Both soon discover that they long for more intimate connections with their mothers, a realisation that takes them to Jerry’s home village of Yilan. The film is a touching story of two men’s search for belonging, that also expands the queer movement beyond the boundaries of Asia’s urban centres, to the experiences of LBGTQI+ ethnic minorities
3. Starting Over (2015)
Country of production: Japan.
When: Friday 22, 7pm.
Where: Roxie, 359 Kangding Lu, near Shaanxi Bei Lu.
In this bleak, coming of age drama directed by Takashi Nishihara, we are introduced to 19-year-old Nana Kurowasa, a young Tokyoite who lives on the seedy side of Tokyo. In a world built out of call girl agencies and economic difficulty, and grounded in her difficult relationship with her cold, unfeeling mother, Nana’s same-sex relationship with her high school friend Marin is her soul source of comfort and she yearns for their relationship to develop into something more. More than just a teen romance, Starting Over is the dreary story of Nana’s search for the meaning of true love in a world tilted against her as a gay woman.
Starting Over will be followed by a ladies night after party featuring DJ iKu iKu.
4. Breaking Free (2015)
Country of production: India.
When: Saturday 23, 6pm.
Where: The Place, 100 Zunyi Lu, near Ziyun Lu.
Part of the SHQFF collaboration with Mumbai KASHISH International Queer Film Festival, comes Breaking Free, a hard-hitting documentary on the traumatic experiences of India’s LBGTQI+ community under the spectre of a legal system that still criminalises homosexuality. Section 377 of the Indian Penal code, bans all sexual activities 'against the order of nature,' and this has far reaching consequences for all members of the LGBTQI+ Indian community, as Breaking Free explores. In a frank, feature length journey through Indian queer circles, director Sridhar Rangayan explores the tragic ramifications of this colonial law, such as lesbian suicide, harassment of HIV awareness groups and abuse of Indian transgendered and intersex individuals.
Breaking Free will be followed by a select series of shorts from KASHISH 2017.
5. The Ornithologist (2016)
Country of production: Portugal, France, Brazil.
When: Sunday, 24, 6pm.
Where: The Pearl (471 Zhapu Lu, near Haining Lu).
Erotic, surreal, almost like an adult Miyazaki picture, The Ornithologist tells the story of Fernando, a birdwatcher who is swept away by rapids while looking for black storks in northern Portugal. Revived by two seemingly normal Chinese hikers, he soon discovers that things are not as they seem. Fernando is swept into a surrealist journey through the wilderness as he encounters curses, pagan rituals, and a mute shepherd named Jesus.
Shanghai Queer Film Festival Sat 16-Sun 24. Various locations around town. Free.
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