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Festival 2024
Image Under the Ground
Multiple origins, 2023

ExpandedPay What You Can
Curated by
If Splash as Your Whistle (Xinyu XuXX & Yuqing Lin) 
Running time
113 mins
ExpandedPay What You Can
Queer East -

Image Under the Ground is a programme showcasing a series of artists’ short films and a live performance to create a “cave space”, a transitional space that refracts unspeakable diaspora queer experiences. These images capture vulnerability, intimacy, and illusionary multi-sensory experience. In these works by Southeast and East Asian filmmakers and artists, “underground images” can refer to mediation outside of traditional industry filmmaking. Sometimes, it can be associated with the representation of violence or power distribution of the camera, poor image aesthetics, hidden identity, or images as an underground manifesto and action. 

Event Runtime: 113 min

This event is preceded by a live sound performance by Nanzhen Yang.


Silver Cave 

Stepping into a cave, sight fluctuates by the firelight, left to right, top to bottom. 

Caibei Cai | China | 2022 | 15min 


KEREL (Sea of Love) 

Trapped in a cargo ship during the lockdown, Kerel, a gay Filipino seafarer escapes through his memory, and recalls his complicated past, present, and future self. 

Jon Cuyson | Philippines | 2021 | 14min 


Cocoon  

Denied mobility and decision-making power, the metaphorical and physical cocoon embodies political depression. 

Holli Xue | UK | 2024 | 11min 


Yi-Ren (the person of whom I think)

A collaged love letter made from super 8mm diaries, karaoke videos, and found-footage from the films and poems of Kang-Chien Chiu. 

Tzu-An Wu | Taiwan | 2015 | 14min 


Lovers 

Lovers is an art project aimed at reversing the “treatment” of homosexuality in China, initiated by artist Wu Laobai and gay policeman Lin Gully. 

Laobai Wu, Honbin Zheng | China | 2023 | 32min 


A New Day Has Come 

The Purple and the Orange move into a surreal cave and dance through a strange axis of time.

Nguyen Hai Yen (Red) | Vietnam | 2022 | 8min 


This is a pay-what-you-can event between £3 and £15. We suggest £9 as a general admission, but feel free to follow the list below to pay based on your circumstances.

How much should I pay?
£3: I am just about able to cover my everyday costs.
£6: I can cover my everyday costs, but I find it stressful occasionally.
£9: I can comfortably cover my everyday costs.
£12: Beyond my everyday costs, I have disposable income and financial security.
£15: I would like to contribute more to support the organisation’s work.


Tickets


Sat 20 April, 6:30 PM
Event Past
Queer East -
A New Day Has Come
2022
Directed by
Nguyen Hai Yen (Red)
Running time
8 mins
The film depicts a world in constant motion that opens up when we slumber. Cavernous darkness is a habitat of transit, between worlds and the axis of time. In the heart of this motion, memories, knowledge, sadness and joy will leave their residues without completely disappearing: perhaps they have fallen into another p...

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Yi-Ren
2015
Directed by
Tzu-An Wu
Running time
14 mins
Yi-Ren (can be vaguely translated to “the person of whom I think”) is a collaged love letter made from various sources, such as super 8mm diaries, karaoke videos, and found-footage from the films and poems of Kang-Chien Chiu (1940-2013). It is also an act of homage and a queer reading of Chiu.

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Silver Cave
2022
Directed by
Caibei Cai
Running time
15 mins
Stepping into a cave, sight fluctuates by the firelight. Left to right, top to bottom. The same goes for the screen in front of you. It is a borderless tunnel, presenting domestication and desire.

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Lovers
2023
Directed by
Laobai Wu & Honbin Zheng
Running time
32 mins
Lovers is an art project aimed at reversing the "treatment" of homosexuality in China, initiated by artist Wu Laobai and gay policeman Lin Gully. In collaboration with various affirmative action organisations, counsellors and related practitioners in China, they distilled three sentences based on the Chinese Diagnosis ...

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KEREL (Sea of Love)
2021
Directed by
Jon Cuyson
Running time
14 mins
The hybrid experimental documentary fiction film is an evocation of the complexities of personal and national identity prescribed by one’s memory. The film mixes archival images with texts, filmed and found footage to weave the complex narrative from the perspective of a gay Filipino seafarer stranded at sea, confron...

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Cocoon
2024
Directed by
Holli Xue
Running time
11 mins
The narrative-led experimental documentary weaves together video recordings spanning five years, merging documented events from pandemic-era state control. It incorporates a performance piece responding to the filmmaker's traumatic memories of that period, inviting the audience to reflect on how an arbitrary capitalist...

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Director Bio



If splash as your whistle (⽔哨) is an artist-led project cofounded by artists Xinyu XuXX & Yuqing Lin in early 2023. This on-going project showcases queer diaspora moving images and artists’ films through multiple art events.

Additional info



This is a pay-what-you-can event between £3 and £15. We suggest £9 as a general admission, but feel free to follow the list below to pay based on your circumstances.

How much should I pay?
£3: I am just about able to cover my everyday costs.
£6: I can cover my everyday costs, but I find it stressful occasionally.
£9: I can comfortably cover my everyday costs.
£12: Beyond my everyday costs, I have disposable income and financial security.
£15: I would like to contribute more to support the organisation’s work.