In Conversation with Queer East Film Festival

Queermunity talks to Yi Wang, the Festival Director and Programmer of Queer East Film Festival.

Would you like to tell us a bit about what Queer East Film Festival is?

Queer East is an LGBTQ+ film festival aiming to showcase rarely seen queer cinema from, and about, East and Southeast Asian countries. Our mission and goal is to amplify the voices of the Asian community in the UK.

What do you aim to achieve in creating Queer East Film Festival?

We aim to provide a platform for underrepresented Asian communities and its diasporic communities, so they have a chance to share their history, their identities, and their stories. It’s also a platform for all allies and friends to gather and address the challenges and issues we are all facing. I hope it can be a platform for everyone to participate in discussions and conversations, to explore and understand different identities, different cultures, and personal experiences.

Sound amazing, what a worthy cause! There needs to be far more representation out there.

Yeah! Our stories aren’t getting heard or noticed enough. So, here we are, we want to make it happen ourselves.

When did Queer East Film Festival begin? When did you start getting involved in it?

[laughs] From 2019, I mean this is actually quite interesting because, I have always been passionate about film - I’m a very avid cinema-goer but I’m actually not from a film background, my job isn’t related to film at all. So, before the festival I had zero connection to the film industry. But this is something I’ve always hoped to do, so the idea of creating Queer East Film Festival is actually from a very personal experience of me as a cinema-goer. I came to London seven years ago, in 2014, and there was a very vibrant film industry, film culture, here, but I just felt like I didn't see a lot of Asian films. It’s not just about queer films, it’s in general, you just don’t see a lot of Asian films. I think it’s a bit shocking in a way because according to the 2011 official UK census, in London, Asians take up around 18.5% of the total population, which is quite a significant percentage. However, we are definitely not seeing the same percentage of Asian films being shown to the public in cinemas.

If there’s a chance we can actually put together a programme about queer Asian communities then that would be a good thing for the community, then we can finally discuss and address these issues with the general public. So that’s basically how it started: from the feeling that this is something I don’t see a lot and it is an important thing to do.

We also got quite lucky. I had this idea and then in 2019 I had a chance to apply for the funding from Brent 2020, London Borough of Culture, and successfully got selected as part of it. We also received some funding support from Film Hub London and the UK office of the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture. Of course, the cinemas were super supportive in helping us put on all these films. In total we worked with over 15 venues, in London, Manchester and Nottingham.

Right from the beginning it’s wonderful to have built those partnerships and that they are stepping forward to help the community!

Yeah, I think the good thing is that from personal experience I feel that people’s attitudes are changing. They want to help address the lack of representation here.

So, we’ve spoken about under representation, do you have examples of films that maybe represent the community well or showcase it to its best?

I wouldn’t say that there is a single film that can best represent the Asian LGBTQ+ community, as it is really very diverse. Instead, I hope to use our programme as a whole to showcase the various and dynamic perspectives of queer East and Southeast Asian communities. When we speak about queer Asian communities here there are still a lot of stereotypes and misunderstandings about them. For example, a lot of people still maintain the assumption that all LGBTQ+ communities in Asia suffer and experience a lot of social oppressions. Undeniably, there is a lot of discrimination still, but these things happen, regardless of whether you are in Asia or not. There is also joy, encouragement, and happiness about being a queer Asian as well. That’s why we are very focused on bringing up a diverse program which touches every topic, and every community, like trans communities, lesbian communities, and those subjects you usually don't find on mainstream media. This is the way we approach our ideal of fair and diverse representation of queer Asian people.

"I hope to use our programme as a whole to showcase the various and dynamic perspectives of queer East and Southeast Asian communities."

And when we say Queer East, does that involve South East Asia, countries like India?

So, Southeast Asia doesn’t involve India. The main idea is East and Southeast – countries like East Asia would be Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China. And Southeast would be Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, etc. South Asia is places like India and Pakistan. I feel like South Asian communities are quite strong here and there’s already a lot of brilliant works done by South Asian communities, and also personally because I am not from that cultural background I don’t want to and don’t think I should claim their experiences. I believe authentic experience is important hence I want to focus on areas we are more familiar with. What you just mentioned also reminds me of when we talk about ‘Asian’ who are we talking about? Because the Asian community comprises of a very wide and diverse community, but here, it’s one of the systemic problems—here they just treat you as an ‘Asian’ – it's just one word to include these more or less 30 countries, these different languages, different histories, different cultures. When we focus on just simply ‘Asian’, we ignore the diversity within and that can be very problematic.

"When we focus on just simply ‘Asian’, we ignore the diversity within and that can be very problematic."

What do you think is the future for Queer East Film Festival?

At the moment we are in the process of curating our second edition, which will hopefully be held in September. I would say the conversation is going quite well, from what we did last year I do feel like people realise ‘yes we need to see more’, and to be honest, a lot of films we show can also resonate with the queer experience here. Even if you are British or European, some experiences are universal. Last year, because of COVID-19, we couldn’t stage a film festival like we had originally planned, so this year we hope we can do that – fingers crossed! Hopefully we will have the capacity to show more and also what I find is we need more. I also hope we can do more ‘in conversation’ or panel discussion events because seeing a film is kind of like the start, the first step, and then we want to deepen the conversation. We hope to bring more representation and share more knowledge about queer East Asian communities.

I believe that during COVID you established a Virtual Series: ‘QE: HomeSexual’, is that going to continue once the pandemic is over, that people can still access films online?

Yes! Due to the COVID restrictions and lockdown last year, we had to postpone the entire festival, but were able to bring different programmes online. ‘QE: HomeSexual’ was in April/May, and in July, during Pride season, we also launched another one called ‘QE: Docs4Pride’, which consists of four documentaries about LGBTQ+ movements in Asia. In a way, I am a very traditional sort of old school cinemagoer, I like watching films in the cinema but I also felt like, for us, the main purpose is bringing these cultures, these films, to as many people as we can and online is definitely a great channel for us. If we just did a festival in London, then that means the majority of people we would be able to reach will be Londoners, but through those online series we can reach cities like Nottingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and so on, or even places we probably won’t ever get a chance to bring a film to. So going online has been a very positive experience for us, and for many other film festivals as well. [It] taught us lessons about, for example, how the film experience can be and then how we can balance the online element and the in-cinema elements. We will aim for a sort of hybrid-format: in-cinema screenings will still happen but we will try to introduce some online contents, so for those people who can’t go to the cinemas they can still access our offerings from their own screen.

"The main purpose is bringing these cultures...to as many people as we can."

As you say, it's so important for accessibility and also I think it allows people who maybe weren’t able to see that representation, particularly at a time during a pandemic when a lot of people have to stay at home and be on their own, to see it.

Yeah, definitely, accessibility is a huge part of what we do. Given the nature of our festival, the majority of our films are in foreign languages so they must have subtitles, aiding a lot of people in their viewing experience. Also, we have adopted the ‘pay-what-you-can’ pricing model usually from £0 to £5, which we use to make sure our screenings are accessible for people who want to join in with a price they feel comfortable.

Are there any particular films that you really enjoyed showcasing?

There are two films I keep talking about in our programme. Our opening film ‘Blue Gate Crossing’, which is almost 20 years old already. As one of the earliest coming-of-age films to address teenagers’ exploration of sexuality on the big screen and having enjoyed significant commercial success, this film retains a special spot in Taiwanese cinema history as it inspired and influenced so many subsequent works. I think it gave so many people of my age and many after who have doubts about who they are inspiration. For them to see themselves on the big screen and to realise that they are not alone is one of the most powerful things this film brought to us.

"To see themselves on the big screen and to realise that they are not alone is one of the most powerful things this film brought to us."

Also, there’s a documentary in our programme called ‘Turning 18’, which many people might argue against my choice of as an LGBTQ+ film, given that homosexuality is a very minor focus of the protagonist, Chen’s, life. However, I feel the film emphasises the importance of normalising queer characters. You see sometimes many films overemphasise or even tragedize the life experience of being queer or portray it like it’s the character’s all-consuming identity. In this film, in Chen’s case, being lesbian is only a tiny part of her life and probably the only thing over which she holds control, in contrast to everything else happening in her life. Through this film I want to highlight the importance of giving queer characters more three-dimensional, honest, and normalised portrayals on screen.

"I want to highlight the importance of giving queer characters more three-dimensional, honest, and normalised portrayals on screen."

If you were speaking to someone who’s never seen queer eastern cinema before are there any film makers or actors that you would recommend as ambassadors or role models for the LGBTQ+ community?

There are a couple of names you can check out. There’s a Taiwanese director Zero Chou, an openly lesbian director who has devoted her career to making films about lesbians and female desire. Some more names such as Popo Fan, who is based in Berlin now and has been actively making documentaries and short films about the queer Chinese community; Andrew Thomas Huang and April Lin are artists/filmmakers who make stunning works exploring queer identities.

From my personal experience, in East Asia it’s more often organisations or collaborative efforts than people though. Because culturally it always tends away from individualism, so you will see that there is a strong group that are promoting queer culture quite vocally, but it’s a bit difficult to say there is one person on which you should focus on. Of course, there are some famous people, but I would always encourage you to check out some organisations. For example, there’s an organisation called ASEAN SOGIE Caucus. They’ve been doing an amazing job of promoting queer Asian.

I would also suggest, if I could change the question a little bit, checking out a couple of film festivals in the UK which are definitely worth a shout out for their brilliant works of promoting diverse queer cinema to the audience. In London, there’s Fringe! Queer Film and Arts Fest, a brilliant community-focused and volunteer-led festival I like very much. They’ve been running for 10 years now I think and I have seen so many great films, especially films about queer people of colour, in their festival that you probably would not be able to see in other places. Another one is Scottish Queer International Film Festival which is based in Glasgow, it is also a very community-focused festival and probably one of the most accessible film festivals I know. Not only paying attention to presenting a diverse programme, but they have also been doing an extensive job of making their screenings and events accessible, such as BSL interpretation, audio description, captioning, large-print and a ‘Pay-What-You-Can’ pricing scheme etc. I also would suggest checking out CineQ Birmingham and Leeds Queer Film Festival which are smaller but also very good at introducing international and alternative queer films to audiences.

How could we be better allies to the Queer East Film Festival?

Keep an eye out for our social media posts – we are on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Their handles are all @queereast. Watch our films, online or in cinemas! Watch them, share our events, and throw your questions at us. I really enjoy the process of discussing a film because the queer experience is also quite a cultural experience, if you come from different backgrounds you will experience different things, which is why we try to have pre-screening introductions or Q&As after. This is something we are working hard on making sure we can have in every future screening. I also think it’s important to pay more attention and be aware of diversity. Sometimes I feel that the current system in the UK is either white or BAME and this is a problem. BAME generalises all people of colour and erases the diversity within it. I hope that we can talk more specifically about the very diverse communities within. We need to be heard more: increasing the content from people of colour is paramount. We want films from Africa about Black communities, we also want films about our local Black communities in the UK, films from South Asia, from East Asia, from the Middle East.

"We need to be heard more: increasing the content from the people of colour is paramount."

Any final thoughts?

We’ve realised that East Asian, Southeast Asian communities are not strongly represented at all, and so we do need to speak out, to get our voices heard, otherwise people literally will just ignore us. So yes, I’m happy that we have the chance to do this and grateful for the support received. Supporters like you [Queermunity] who are willing and wanting to hear what we are saying.

Yeah definitely, we need to showcase Intersectionality as much as possible.

Yes, exactly. Because that’s the most important part – being a queer person of colour, it’s a bit like being double marginalised in a way. Every time we talk about the queer community, we forget that there’s different communities within it, and it’s not always just white, male ones. Sometimes when we talk about race, we forget there are different sexual orientations that need to be noticed. That’s why intersectionality is very important. People have different identities – we need to acknowledge the differences and try to understand their full experience.

Check out Queer East Film Festivals latest festival trailer here

Article Written By Yi Wang

(Interviewee) (He/Him)

and Queermunity (Interviewers)

All Photos Provided by Queer East Film Festival and Yi Wang.