Partnering with the Cultural Division of the Taipei Representative Office in the United Kingdom, Queer East will be launching a new charitable initiative to showcase rarely seen LGBTQ+ cinema from East and Southeast Asia through its first-ever Queer East Film Festival.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the London festival has been postponed to later this year. In the meantime, Queer East will expand its online offerings with a special capsule series titled "QE HomeSexual" and slated for April 18 through May 17.
Yi Wang (王裔), director and programmer of Queer East, remarked that this is a platform for Asian neighborhoods to celebrate their identity and heritage, to address the challenges they face, and to explore and exchange inspiring stories through the sharing of cinema and culture. "QE:HomeSexual" is an attempt to continue telling brave stories of the queer community and raise money for independent cinemas hard-struck by the pandemic, he added.
Taiwan became the first country in Asia to fully support marriage equality on May 17, 2019. Therefore, a "Focus Taiwan" section is planned as one of the highlights of this inaugural digital film festival.
The "QE:HomeSexual" lineup will also be spotlighting Huang Hui-chen's (黃惠偵) "Small Talk (日常對話)," which received the Teddy Award for Best Documentary at the 2017 Berlinale. The documentary is a series of conversations with the director's mother about why she kept her sexuality a secret from her family and lived as a wife and parent.
"QE:HomeSexual – Shorts 1: She / Her (她/她)" will present a collection of six queer female stories told by women from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. The Taiwanese films in this segment are: Kuo Kuan-ling's (郭冠伶) "The Summer of 12 (泳隊)," Chang Chiung-wen's (張瓊文) "When Mom Visits (當媽媽來敲門)," Chen Pin-ru's (陳品儒) "Shall We Dance? (來跳舞吧)," and Wang Pin-wen's (王品文) "Between Us (我們之間)."
Moreover, the "Made in Taiwan" shorts collection celebrating Taiwan's rich tradition of LGBTQ+ filmmaking includes Wang Jia-yao's (王嘉耀) "100 Apples (蘋果男孩)," Yu Jhi-han's (游智涵) "Gentleman Spa (癡情馬殺雞)," Lian Kien-hui's (練健輝) "Encore (再演一齣戲)," and Li Yan-xun's (李彥勳) "Tidal (潮汐)."
Dr. Chen Pin-chuan (陳斌全), director of the Ministry of Culture's UK office, emphasized that films and shorts are one of the most straightforward ways to understand social issues. Taiwan has witnessed a welcoming proliferation of movies and documentaries concerning gender and marriage rights and the "Focus Taiwan" section will be a great way to showcase multiple voices from the equality movement in Taiwan.
It is unfortunate that due to the viral pandemic, the film festival had to be postponed, but by moving the film showings online, there is now an opportunity to reach wider audience groups beyond London, he added.
"QE:HomeSexual" will feature a total of five programs on 17 films from 9 countries. Each program will be available via Vimeo on Demand and all proceeds will go toward supporting independent cinemas.
‘QE:HomeSexual’
Date: April 18 – May 17, 2020
Digital Festival: https://vimeo.com/queereast
Website: https://queereast.org.uk/