A series of short films and artist moving images that work intimately and unapologetically with and through stereotypical elements of racialised East and South East Asian media, leading to lubricious slippages and unexpected relationships between the filmmakers and the motifs they consort with. It’s like chancing upon a seedy late-night cinema hall only to find the films they show to be uncanny subversions of the usual classics, where even the cliché perverse finds itself perverted further more.
Total Running Time: 85 Min
Dikit
A young woman with a monstrous secret desperately longs for a different body. When the new couple in town moves in next door, she sees her chance to finally get one. A silent, split-screen deconstruction of an ancient Filipino legend.
Gabriela Serrano | Philippines | 2021 | 16min
out in the world
Composited over found footage of patrons eating out at Chinese restaurants, a latex-clad figure spins in tandem with their characteristic lazy susans. The exaggerated, cartoonish and sometimes flirtatious performances that this fetishistic body brings out of these folks, blur the line between derision and affection, othering and intimacy.
Bart Seng Wen Long | Singapore | 2022 | 9min
Boy-Taste
Naked men play innocently in an Esoteric Buddhist temple, returning to their boyhood. Model aeroplanes, paper butterflies, vehicles, tiny toys, the objects they loved as boys emerge one after another from the darkness. Made in 1973, this work visualises the dreams and attachments of a bygone boyhood.
Michio Okabe | Japan | 1973 | 12min
I shudder with pleasure that at last the time has come
One day, with hesitation, a young man visits the room of a mythical Mistress. The young man’s pain turns into sweet love, a kind of rooted love, and he becomes one with Mother, with himself, and finally connects with the universe.
Mari Terashima | Japan | 2022 | 27min
Sexy Sushi
Life on a conveyor belt seems great for Sushi and his Topping friends. But as he begins to contemplate his existence, Sushi wonders if there’s more to life than pimping himself out to savage consumers.
Calleen Koh | Singapore | 2021 | 3min
Super Taboo
Based on a pornographic book from the 1980s, Su’s immersive video work brings frozen tableaux of a forest orgy to life. Actor Chin Shih-Chieh reads out a titillating story from the pages of the book, after which he recalls his childhood memories of letting his erotic imagination run wild. Accompanied by a crackling drone soundtrack, the camera tracks naked bodies and finds the surrounding river turned vibrant pink and yellow.
Su Hui-Yu | Taiwan | 2017 | 18min
![Queer East -](https://queereast.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/I-shudder-with-pleasure-that-at-last-the-time-has-come-01.jpg)
Programmed by Bart Seng Wen Long.
This screening will be followed by an in-person conversation with Akira-Kai Kitazono, filmmaker and researcher; and Bart Seng Wen Long, artist-curator.
Supported by the Westminster City Council.