The annual Queer East Film Festival is returning for its fourth installment, taking place across London from April 18 to 30, 2023.
We are back! Save the date for the fourth edition of #QueerEast Festival, running from 18 to 30 April in venues across London. pic.twitter.com/dAu1b4YqAs
— Queer East (@queereast) February 8, 2023
Queer East, which describes itself as “an LGBTQ+ film festival that showcases rarely-seen queer cinema from East and Southeast Asia,” will pay homage to queer cinematic history this year, with showcases of new films.
It will kick off at BFI Southbank with the Filipino film ‘I Love You, Beksman’ by Perci Intalan. A subversive high-camp comedy, ‘I Love You, Beksman’ follows the story of a make-up artist forced to come out as straight to his gay family and friends after falling in love with a beauty pageant queen.
At its closing gala at the Barbican Center, Queer East will have South Korea’s ‘Home Ground’, a documentary about the country’s first lesbian bar, Lesbos.
Queer East will also feature Korea’s history of queer cinema. This includes ‘Pollen of Flowers’ (1972), a film about a businessman who begins an affair with his male secretary, ‘A Man and a Gisaeng’ (1969) which follows a man who dresses as a woman to become a gisaeng — a female outcast trained to be a courtesan, and ‘5.25m^2’, a virtual-reality film about director Kim Kyung-mook after he was sentenced to 18 months in prison following his coming out and objection to mandatory military service.
Queer East will run its main edition across London, but it will also tour over 15 locations in the United Kingdom, a nationwide tour they call “On the Road.”
For more details and updates, check out Queer East Festival’s website and Facebook page.
