Queer East Festival
The Queer East Festival 2024 nationwide tour is heading to the Cameo Picturehouse in Edinburgh from 17th - 21st October.
About Queer East Festival
Founded in response to the systemic lack of East and Southeast Asian representation on stage, screen and behind the scenes, Queer East Festival was formed in 2020 and has made its mark across the UK with its bold programmes of LGBTQ+ cinema and visual arts, growing in popularity and size year-on-year, and celebrating its fifth anniversary this year.
Queer East Festival’s ground-breaking film programme challenges conventions and stereotypes giving audiences an opportunity to explore the contemporary queer landscape across East and Southeast Asia. With its fifth anniversary edition, Queer East Festival reaffirms a commitment to diversifying the cultural landscape in the UK, and to serving as a platform that nurtures dialogue on the multifaceted understandings of what it means to be Asian and queer today.
Films screening:
Bye Bye Love - 50th anniversary screening (Japan, 1974)
Until the discovery of a film negative in a warehouse in 2018, Bye Bye Love was long considered lost, but this new print gives audiences a rare chance to revisit this radical work of 1970s Japanese cinema, which recalls the 1969 queer classic Funeral Parade of Roses. Following two young people, Utamaro and Giko, on a doomed summer road trip through Japan, this poetic, surreal work reflects on the dissipating promise of 1960s counterculture and free love, transcending gender, sexuality and the body. With a blend of stylistic influences from the French New Wave and American New Cinema along with a rethinking of Japanese artistic traditions, conventional understandings are challenged through a queer lens, adding to the political charge of this rediscovered classic.
The Last Year of Darkness (China, USA, 2023)
Ben Mullinkosson’s (Don’t Be a Dick About It) coming-of age documentary is a love letter to the Chengdu underground scene. With construction cranes looming, the future of queer-friendly techno club Funky Town is unclear, leaving party goers forced to make the most of their remaining time there.
The River (Taiwan, 1997)
Tsai Ming-liang is one of the most celebrated ‘Second New Wave’ film directors of Taiwanese cinema and his shockingly subversive family drama centres around the disintegration of a troubled family after a young man is suddenly struck by debilitating neck pain. Shot in Tsai’s signature minimalist style and starring his muse Lee Kang-Sheng, who has appeared in many of Tsai’s groundbreaking films including Rebels of the Neon God and Good Bye, Dragon Inn, this controversial work confirmed the director’s place as a uniquely rebellious voice in LGBTQ+ cinema, offering a sly, queer critique of the nuclear family and the values it represents.
Love Bound + Q&A (UK, 2024)
Shanshan Chen integrates animation and anecdotes in her documentary centering on the journey of Qiuyan Chen who became an unexpected celebrity after suing the Chinese Government over homophobic textbooks. After moving to the UK to escape her suffocating family and government pressure, her life takes an unexpected turn when she meets Bling who has to return to China. Determined to reunite and build a life together, Qiuyan embarks on a challenging journey to bring Bling back to the UK.
Welcome to Neverland (shorts programme)
Blurring boundaries between reality and fantasy, the filmmakers in this programme delve into weird and wonderful experiences that ignite the possibility of change: personal, political, and philosophical. To be queer is, literally, to be strange or odd, which here serves as a means of challenging cultural understandings of gender and sexuality. Through blood, fish scales, and sexy copies of Hegel’s oeuvre, the films in this collection make otherworldliness a point of pride.
Image: Bye Bye Love
Where possible we will update our listings to notify of cancelled, postponed and rescheduled events, however we STRONGLY ADVISE that you check with the venue/organiser in the first instance for updates.
All information (whether in text or photographs) is supplied in good faith but should not be relied upon as being a statement of representation or fact.GOT AN EVENT TO SHARE? It's free to post your events on What's On Edinburgh, click here to find out more!
Want to be the first to hear about what's happening in Edinburgh? Follow us on Facebook and join the What's On Scotland Group!Sponsored Links
Other Events at Cameo Picturehouse
The Muppet Christmas Carol Screening + Tea & Festive Cakes
Enjoy a boxed selection of delicious treats to indulge in as you watch The Muppet Christmas Carol at Cameo Picturehouse on 13th December!
READ MOREDog-Friendly Screening: The Muppet Christmas Carol
The Muppets reimagine Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by adding a hilarious and heartfelt touch of Muppet magic in this Dog-Friendly screening at Cameo Picturehouse on 13th December!
READ MORE
Dogma: Resurrected! + Recorded Q&A
Dogma: Resurrected! reintroduces the story of Bartleby (Ben Affleck) and Loki (Matt Damon), two banished angels who seek to exploit a theological loophole and return to Heaven.
READ MORE
The Polar Express Screening + PJ Party
Get your little cinephiles dressed up in their most festive pyjamas and come along to Cameo Picturehouse for our extra special Kids' Club screening of this Christmas favourite, The Polar Express!
READ MORE
Home Alone Screening + Tea & Festive Cakes
Home Alone, a Christmas classic, is screening at Cameo Picturehouse on 20th Decmeber including an extra treat - Tea & Festive Cakes!
READ MORE
It’s a Wonderful Life Screening + Tea & Festive Cake
Enjoy It’s a Wonderful Life, a Christmas classic, along with an extra treat! All tickets include a trio of mini desserts and a mulled wine to cosy up with at Cameo Picturehouse.
READ MOREIt’s a Wonderful Life Screening + Prosecco & Popcorn
It’s a Wonderful Life is screening at Cameo Picturehouse. Come alon and enjoy this Christmas classic along with an extra treat! All tickets include a glass of Prosecco and a regular popcorn.
READ MORESponsored Links
Similar events you might like...
RSNO 2025/26: Home Alone in Concert
The iconic Christmas family film Home Alone will be brought to life at this special screening featuring live music from the RSNO at Edinburgh's Usher Hall!
READ MORE
The Muppet Christmas Carol Screening + Tea & Festive Cakes
Enjoy a boxed selection of delicious treats to indulge in as you watch The Muppet Christmas Carol at Cameo Picturehouse on 13th December!
READ MORE
Dog-Friendly Screening: The Muppet Christmas Carol
The Muppets reimagine Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by adding a hilarious and heartfelt touch of Muppet magic in this Dog-Friendly screening at Cameo Picturehouse on 13th December!
READ MORE
Edinburgh Short Film Festival Highlights
Escape from the crowds and chill out with a winter warmer while simultaneously travelling to weird and wonderful worlds via short film as part of Summerhall's Winter Fair!
READ MORE
Christmas Movies
This winter, step into our beautiful twinkling festive space and watch one of your favourite Christmas films here at Lost Shore!
READ MORE
Love Actually: The Film With Live Orchestra
Love Actually, the star-studded rom-com that has become a Christmas classic, returns to the Usher Hall this December with a full orchestra performing its soundtrack live to screen!
READ MORE
Freeze Frame: All That Heaven Allows (U)
Special Freeze Frame screening of the profoundly felt film about class and conformity in small-town America, All That Heaven Allows is a pinnacle of expressionistic Hollywood melodrama.
READ MORE
Ukranian Cinema: The Editorial Office
The Institut français d'Écosse is screening 'The Editorial Office', a darkly witty new film about truth, corruption, and identity in modern Ukraine.
READ MORE
RSNO Christmas Concert Featuring The Snowman
Join the RSNO this December for a special feast of Christmas cheer! Comedian Josie Long will narrate our popular screening of the magical film!
READ MOREFind other events in Edinburgh
Sponsored Links