Past screening

Queer East Festival: Bad Women of China

Directed by: He Xiaopei
Runtime: 1h 22min Certificate: TBC Year: 2022
Watch trailer

Details

Directed by: He Xiaopei
Runtime: 1h 22min Certificate: TBC Year: 2022
Topics: History & Archive, Sociopolitical

Filmmaker and activist He Xiaopei's first feature-length documentary commences with an attempt at reconciliation with her mother, before taking the audience on a journey from the 1920s through to the 2020s.

With a raw, DIY aesthetic, the film brings to life the experiences of three generations of Chinese women – He’s mother, herself, and her daughter – as they come to terms with political and social change. Combining interview, video essay, and home movie formats, the film offers a refreshingly irreverent perspective on historical experiences, while wryly documenting the potential of lesbian and polyamorous lifestyles to challenge established ideas of feminine propriety.

Through intimate conversations, Bad Women of China demonstrates how women are unconsciously led to belittle their own desires, experiences and hopes.

This screening will be followed by an in-person Q&A with the director He Xiaopei, moderated by So Mayer, writer and activist.

Presented in partnership with Club des Femmes.

 

Queer East is a cross-disciplinary festival that showcases LGBTQ+ cinema, live arts, and moving image work from East and Southeast Asia and its diaspora communities. Its fourth edition runs from 18 to 30 April in venues across London, exploring notions of what it means to be queer and Asian today.

Partners