Beijing Queer Film Festival

The screening of LGBT films presents a challenge to filmmakers and festival organizers in China, as the country has a censorship law that prohibits any positive depiction of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender lives in films or TV shows. The selection of mainstream venues is not permitted, and the big international festivals in Shanghai and Beijing do not show gay-themed films, whilst DVDs of films such as Brokeback Mountain are only available on the black market.[4]

The founder of the Beijing Queer Film Festival, Cui Zi'en, says "The biggest change is that I'm not the only one doing this... There's more support from the gay community. Society has become more relaxed and open-minded in its thinking". Community organizers say that gay-themed events that would have been banned a few years ago are now being permitted.[2]

Beijing Queer Film Festival was founded in 2001 by Chinese film director Cui Zi’en, who personally identifies as gay. During the Festival's early years, screenings were often cancelled at short notice by the security police, and films were moved from cinemas and universities to bars and private homes. Publicity was largely by word-of-mouth and the organizers were notified that they may be arrested.[4] The Festival was closed by the police in 2001 and 2005,[2] and the Festival's main venues were changed or cancelled.[6]

The second edition, in 2002, relocated its screenings from Beijing University to the-then semi-'underground' 798 arts district,[7] (in Dashanzi, north east of Beijing city centre), which is described as "China's version of New York's SoHo".[8] In 2011, the Festival was again ordered shut down by government officials.[7]

In 2013, the Festival proceeded without interruption.[4] Organizers did no public advertising for the event, and many screening venues were announced at the last minute. Several more publicized screenings were held at the French and Dutch embassies, and the American Center, out of reach of the local authorities. In that year, 28 films from nine countries were screened, including Chinese-language titles from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The Festival also hosted a debate on the topic of film censorship in China.[7]

Due to the perceived success of the Festival in 2013, the organizers for the 2014 edition decided to hold the screenings in a public cinema and marketed the Festival to the Beijing LGBT community through social media. However, during this period, the Chinese Government, under the country's new leadership, Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, arrested critics and closed down NGOs that were regarded as potentially critical of the government. In late August 2013, the Beijing Independent Film Festival had been forced to close, and would-be audience members were dispersed by police, whilst the venue's electricity supply was switched off and the organizers were detained. During this time, police seized documents and film archives from their offices.[4] As a result of these developments, the 2014 Festival organizers decided to change their approach, and abandoned the idea of using a public cinema, and decided to cut back on their social media activities. Shortly before the festival began, two security officers visited the Festival Co-director, Jenny Man Wu, a non-LGBT woman with a long-term interest in LGBT cinema. They told her that they had tapped her phone and read all her emails, and that, if she went ahead with the Festival as planned, "there will be trouble.”[4]

On the day before the opening of the 2014 Festival, an email was sent to potential attendees that there was a new plan. They were told to "go to the central Beijing railway station the next morning, purchase tickets for the 11:15 AM train to a town near the Great Wall, and proceed to car [carriage] number 7", with the note ending “Make sure to bring your laptops”. The following morning, the train carriage was filled with a mixture of Chinese LGBT film buffs, filmmakers, academics, artists and activists. The organizers handed out flash drives for the laptops, containing the opening film, Our Story, a retrospective of the Festival's history. The rest of the festival went off without major incident. Most of the films were from China, with others from Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Europe. There were features, documentaries, a variety of shorts including several student films, and panels on topics ranging from “Light Documentary, Heavy Activism” to “Women on Top.” Many of the screenings and panel discussions took place at the Dutch Embassy, beyond the control of the Beijing local authorities.[4][6]

• List of LGBT film festivals