Saturday and Sunday: The first LGBTQ independent Chinese film festival in Miami.
The festival will include screenings and discussions at The Chill Concept, an art space at 114 NE 20th Terr., Miami.
Here's the news release, with details:
The Chill Concept presents the First LGBTQ Chinese Film Festival in Miami
“Queer China Meets Miami” will be the first survey of contemporary independent LGBTQ films from China at The Chill Concept during Gay Pride Month. Screenings and discussions will take place at the Chill Concept on Saturday, June 28th through Sunday, June 29th. All films with English subtitles.
The two-day screening, curated by Jane V Hsu will feature live discussions with the four most preeminent directors of LGBTQ filmmaking, who live and work in Beijing: Cui Zi’en, He Xiaopei, Fan Popo, and Yuan Yuan. There will also be a performance P.M.S Bar by Miami artist Nina Dotti, based on a previously censored work performed in Shanghai.
Queer Chinese independent film directors will screen and discuss their recent work on LGBTQ rights in China, as well as how the social landscape has changed in the last 20 years. Censorship of Chinese independent film has certain been an issue. “Queer China Meets Miami” will offer the directors an opportunity to publicly screen and discuss their work with a Miami audience.
Jane V Hsu has been working as a curator and juror of independent film festivals in China, and has recently been held under house arrest in Beijing for her participation with Chinese independent films.
About the directors of the films:
Mr. Cui Zi’en, pioneer in Chinese gay activism and first to make LGBT award-winning film and documentaries since the 1990’s in China. This will be a world premiere of his experimental film on alien men meeting human men, The Narrow Path. The director is also the co-founder of the Queer Film Festival in China. This summer will screen festival films on a moving bus in order to avoid censorship by the local authorities.
Mr. Fan Popo comes from the new generation of gay documentary filmmakers, looking at how young people in China are coming out in Mama Rainbow and the multi-city production of The VaChina Monologues play adaptation in China.
Ms. He Xiaopei and Ms. Yuan Yuan founded PinkSpace, a NGO serving the only toll-free coming out hotline for gay men and women. Their film, Our Marriages, is about a gay manwho married a lesbian women in order to maintain the traditional Chinese family.
Ms. Jane V Hsu is an independent curator of moving image and performance. Her work focuses on gender, sexuality, HIV/AIDS awareness, and violence in China. She has been juryof numerous independent film festivals including the censored Beijing Independent Film Festival, where she was held under house arrest. Current projects include producing an experimental work film Barbara Hammer, film programmer at the UN Women’s Committee, and co-editing the first comprehensive catalog of post-2000 Chinese films in collaboration with the East Asian CV Starr Library at Columbia University.
About the performer artist
In 2009, Ms. Nina Dotti attempted to perform a one-woman work about menopause at the Mint bar in a westernized section of Shanghai. Before the performance could begin, she was censored by the China Government and told to stop and place all props in black garbage bags. THE HOTFLASHES BAR was a Nina Dotti’s performance installation happening since 2006. Inspire in the Oxygen Bars she creates a bar conceived for menopause education and reflection. Nina Dotti’s also performed the BLUE PILL BAR in 2008 in a bar in Old San Juan, talking with all males about Andropause (male menopause) inviting them to try Viagra for Erectile Dysfunction (ED).[u1]
Dotti’s will perform her HOTFLASHES BAR during Chinese Queer Festival with a new positive setting now re- name P.M.S Bar: Premium Menopause Satisfaction Bar. The P.M.S BAR will give the opportunity to many women to experience Menopause as a refreshing process of empowering life transition. Menopause is about a new attitude, a new flow of life.The artist, who is also the director and founder of the Chill Concept, was inspired again by the political advancements in feminist and LGBT related art events and China.
“Queer China Meets Miami” Screening and Discussion Schedule
Saturday June 28 - Queering China, Past and Present
6:00 pm Nina Dotti - Performance and discussion to preface historical context of feminism and LGBT rights in China
7:00 pm “Mama Rainbow” by Fan Popo, 30 min / discussion with director
7:45 pm Lecture, director Cui Zi’en, pioneer of gay activism and film in China
8:15 “pm Narrow Path” by Cui Zi’en, 73 min
Sunday, June 29 - VaChina Brunch
10:00 am “VaChina Monologues” by Fan Popo - 30 min / discussion with director
11:00 am “Our Marriages” by He Xiaopei and YuanYuan45 min
11:45-12:30 am Q&A with “Our Marriages” directors / Coming out as a lesbian in China
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