Pride in Ordinary Times Beyond Trauma: Five Contemporary Chinese Queer Shorts For much of its history, queer Chinese-language cinema has often been understood through narratives of marginalisation, secrecy, and survival. From censorship and social stigma to familial pressure and legal precarity, queer lives have frequently appeared on screen through the lens of struggle. While these histories remain important, they are not the only stories that deserve to be told. Pride in Or

Modern Masturbation Allegory (2024) Director: Li Xinyi Duration: 24 min Language: English, Mandarin Subtitles: English Country/Region: United Kingdom With a bold and experimental visual language, Modern Masturbation Allegory turns its gaze directly towards the body itself. Combining personal footage, interviews, diary filmmaking, and experimental montage, it transforms masturbation—a topic long considered taboo—into an exploration of desire, loneliness, pleasure, and self-und

Christian (2024) Poster Director: Pan Chuqiao Duration: 11 min Language: Mandarin Subtitles: Chinese, English Country/Region: United Kingdom Through the perspective of a young Asian man living in London, Christian explores the complex intersections of sexuality, faith, race, and migration. Religion has long been framed as an opposing force within queer narratives. Rather than reproducing this binary, however, the film presents a nuanced portrait of an individual continually n

New Beijing, New Marriage (2009) Director: Popo Fan Duration: 18 min Language: Mandarin Chinese Subtitles: English Country/Region: Mainland China Filmed on Valentine’s Day in 2009, New Beijing, New Marriage follows two same-sex couples in Beijing as they prepare for their weddings and bring their celebrations into public space. Faced with curiosity, scrutiny, scepticism, and misunderstanding from passers-by, they present their love openly and unapologetically. Today, the docu

My Dear Dear Hom (2026) Director: Yue Ran Duration: 20 min Languages: Sichuanese dialects, English, French Subtitles: Chinese, English Country/Region: Mainland China, Switzerland After marrying her partner in Switzerland, filmmaker Yue Ran returns to China and turns her camera towards the long and candid conversations she shares with her mother. Deeply personal in nature, My Dear Dear Home establishes an inherent dramatic tension from the outset: on one side stands a daughter

The Night (2023) Poster Director: Jenny Zhang Duration: 34 min Language: Mandarin, Cantonese Subtitles: Chinese, English Country/Region: Mainland China The Night follows two young women as they gradually come to confront and affirm themselves under the pressures of social norms and family expectations. While the protagonists’ journeys reflect queer experiences familiar to many East Asian family contexts, the film refuses to remain confined within narratives of shame, repressi

Green Ray Screening | Brokeback Mountain 20th Anniversary Special Screening Director Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain not only marked a major turning point in his creative career after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but also brought his prowess in cross-cultural storytelling, emotional dialectics and portrayal of human nature to new heights. Adapted from the novel by Annie Proulx, this work places his signature depiction of delicate emotions within a wholly different context: th

European Premiere of Aunt Jiang Director / Cinematographer / Editor: Zeng Tangni Cast: Jiang Fei, Zhang Yihan, Li Xinmiao, Yang Wenlong, Zheng Tianci, Zhang Shiyu Special Cast: Tian Yajuan, Zhang Fushan, Zhang Lijuan Music Performer: Ishibashi Miko Production Year: 2023 Film Genre: Documentary Production Country/Region: Chinese Mainland, Malaysia Language: Northeast Dialect, Mandarin Chinese Duration: 174 minutes Subtitles: Chinese and English Subtitles Film Synopsis A grassr

Bitter Sweet Ballad (2023) Director: Liang Junjian / Tang Tao / Liu Zhangbolong Cast: Quan Yufei / Zhang Zhanhao / Wang Luyao / Feng Xiaoyun Genre: Documentary Production Country/Region: Chinese Mainland Language: Mandarin Chinese Runtime: 108 minutes At Beijing Dandelion Middle School, four choir students use singing to resist the instability of fate. Coming from different regions across China, they may be forced to leave school at any moment due to migration, economic hards

The Botanist (2025) Director: Jing Yi Screenwriter: Jing Yi Cast: Yesili Jiahesilik / Ren Zihan / Elamazan Sahet / Jomayang Songhart / Nudauer Aaron Genre: Drama / Romance / Fantasy Production Country/Region: Chinese Mainland Language: Kazakh / Mandarin Chinese Runtime: 96 minutes In a remote valley village on the northern borderlands of Xinjiang, a lonely Kazakh boy named Arsin finds companionship in plants. Grass, trees, and flowers become the only language he truly underst

Mothertongue (2025) Screenplay: Lü Zhang / Shuyi Liu Cast: Bai Baihe / Wang Chuanjun / Liu Dan / Peng Jin / Shuyi Liu Genre: Drama / Romance Production Country/Region: Chinese Mainland Language: Mandarin Chinese Runtime: 122 minutes A film about loss and disappearance, about local language and memory, and about the slow reconstruction of the self upon returning home. Zhang Lu once again turns his gaze toward individuals who drift within cultural in-between spaces. After spend

The Crossing (2018) Director: Bai Xue Screenwriters: Bai Xue / Lin Meiru / Sun Yan / Zhao Danna Cast: Huang Yao / Sun Yang / Tang Jiawen / Ni Hongjie / Kong Mei Yee Genre: Drama Production Country/Region: Chinese Mainland Language: Mandarin / Cantonese Runtime: 99 minutes Bai Xue crafts a coming-of-age fable centred on a teenage girl navigating the border between Shenzhen and Hong Kong — a story of youth, desire, and unstable identity. Peipei travels between the two cities ev

Screening Schedule | The Pioneering Landforms of the 5.11 Eruption The Americas, a continent formed by the interweaving and superimposition of voyage misinterpretation, colonial accumulation, primitive settlement and modern capital, has always been in a state of continuous movement, deformation and narrative fissure. It is not merely a drifting plate in a geographical sense, but also a metaphor for the continuous deconstruction, differentiation and reshaping in the spiritual

Screening Schedule | May 10 Floating Islands The cracking of Antarctic ice always echoes at midnight. When massive ice shelves break away from their main body, those angular fragments embark on an eternal nomadic journey. They do not seek to become the bedrock of new continents; instead, they willingly take the form of wandering crystals, carving another kind of geological growth ring amid the briny ocean currents—and this is precisely the destiny of micro-images. Amid the co

Screening Schedule | May 9 The Fissures of Existence The "African Plate" is not merely a geographical concept; it represents sunken strata and exposed social realities. Within this plate, moving images carry the weight of rock strata. Rejecting superficial polish and embellishment, they bear geological fissures, documenting people’s lives and struggles within established societal structures. Through *After Graduation* and *Special You*, we gain insight into two facets of "sur

Screening Schedule | May 5 The Latitude of Faith The Indian Ocean is not static; it is a flowing memory and a silent epitaph. The whispers of old gods, the scars of tides, trafficked faiths and drifting identities layer upon one another and intertwine endlessly across these waters. Its language is slow and fragmented, like an incantation murmured softly in a dream. Tectonic plates drift, moving not just the earth’s surface, but also the breaths forgotten by history and overlo

Screening Schedule | May 6: Flowing Arteries of the Earth The Pacific Plate is the Earth's largest tectonic plate. Beneath its seemingly water-covered surface lies a complex geological structure riddled with faults and drastic transformations. For a long time, women have been expected to be gentle, tolerant and reticent in both family and society. Their voices and needs are often overlooked and marginalized, yet they have never ceased to build up disruptive power in silence a

Screening Schedule | May 4: The Emotional Underpinning of Realism The Eurasian Plate is not merely a convergence of nations in a geographical sense, but also a complex and profound fault line in cultural experience. It bridges cities and rural areas across East Asia, the silence and bonds between generations, individuals’ struggles and sense of belonging within social order, and further presents the lives of people constantly swept along by the tides of the times. As the Eura