Threads of Passage - Queer East

Festival 2026

Threads of Passage

Short Form

Curated by
Elena Wise

Running time
112 mins

Short Form

Across shifting geographies and timescales, the films in this collection explore the entanglements of labour with ritual and storytelling, showing how marginalised communities navigate work and build resistance through collective organisation. The textile industry and its globalised networks of labour and migration provide an entry point to examine how lives are shaped by work and material economies. Queerness functions as a lens to read relationships between bodies, materials, and power, highlighting experiences often erased in dominant narratives. The programme reveals how myth and imagination offer tools for rethinking these histories.

Tickets

31 May 2026, 2:00 PM

Past Event

Museum of the Home

Invisible Seams

2022

Directed by
Jia Li

Running time
17 mins

In the hidden spaces of New York’s fashion industry, eight Asian seamstresses and pattern-makers speak about work, migration, and survival. Their stories reveal an industry held together by skilled hands and labour which is rarely brought into view.

The Weavers of Nishijin

1961

Directed by
Toshio Matsumoto

Running time
25 mins

One of Matsumoto’s early avant-garde documentaries, The Weavers of Nishijin observes textile production in a Kyoto neighborhood known for its weaving tradition. Filmed at a moment of transition, it traces the shift from artisanal handweaving to mechanized production, revealing the social worlds embedded in the craft.

Shuttle

2018

Directed by
Kawita Vatanajyankur

Running time
3 mins

Kawita Vatanajyankur transforms her own body into a shuttle for a human-sized weaving loom, becoming a carrier for the yarn which forms a woven fabric. The artist’s ‘Performing Textiles’ series highlights human labour and repetition embedded in large-scale textile production.

Calabai will Always Dance

2024

Directed by
Eman Memay Harundja (& KWRSS)

Running time
22 mins

A transgender woman traces the living legacy of Pajoge Angkong, a traditional dance once performed at night markets and ceremonies. Through encounters with elder performers, the ‘wearers of the konde,’ the film reflects on queer survival and the preservation of cultural knowledge across generations.

Samurai and Deer

2019

Directed by
Chia-Wei Hsu

Running time
9 mins

Beginning with the 17th-century deerskin trade, this work follows the movement of a single commodity across Asia. By tracing how demand shaped the circulation of this material, it reveals historical patterns that continue to influence contemporary systems of production and trade.

China, Beijing, I Love You!

2023

Directed by
Köken Ergun & Danu Fitra

Running time
35 mins

Follow nickel dust and cobalt as they are extracted from the earth and traded along China’s Maritime Silk Road. Drawing on geopolitical research and footage of real labour protests, the film examines how the movement of these raw materials through global supply chains is causing rapid environmental, social, and polit...

Guest Curator Biography

Elena Wise is an independent curator, writer, and craft researcher based in Germany. She approaches craft as a critical methodology for addressing contemporary social issues and imagining alternative futures. She was an ArtTable Curatorial Fellow in 2025 and recently curated Textiles for the End of the World for the Surface Design Association.

Content Note

Some films in the programme contain references to transphobic and racist violence and discrimination, as well as references to war, historical massacres, and colonial violence.