You Watched Me Cry and You Left

Festival 2026

Curated by
Xinyu XuXX (Shuǐ Shào 水哨)

Running time
98 mins

Calling all crybabies! Tears are most commonly associated with sadness, yet trickle through a wider spectrum of overwhelming feelings. Oscillating between the mundane and the spectacular, salty droplets spill between shame, ecstasy, grief and catharsis, gushing against the floodgates of restraint. Streaming from a neon karaoke room to a flooded cityscape, this weepy programme brings together artist film, sound performance, and stand-up comedy to create a playful, intimate gathering where crybabies can collectively release their inhibitions.

The screening will open with a live sound performance by Yutian Hu (YUNA阿尘) and conclude with a stand-up comedy set by Zhou Ning.

Tickets

3 May 2026, 7:00 PM

Past Event

Centre 151

One Thousand Reasons to Cry

2025

Directed by
Jiawei Zheng

Running time
9 mins

In a neon karaoke room, a man’s singing unravels into fractured loops. As phrases repeat, an animated creature appears. Their surreal exchanges drift between grief and laughter, revealing detachment from his mother tongue and pop music’s weight. Karaoke becomes stage and refuge, where memory, loss, and desire are e...

Into the Emerald Sea

2024

Directed by
Asuka Lin

Running time
20 mins

A magic realist short inspired by a Japanese folktale, Into the Emerald Sea follows Suzu, who emerges from the ocean after a long disappearance and returns to their grandmother, now reincarnated as a sea turtle. Set along the southern coastline of Japan, the film reflects on the home left behind and the bittersweet cha...

Sinking Latitude

2024

Directed by
Jiawei Zheng

Running time
20 mins

Considering the ‘underground’ as metaphor and material reality, the film revisits a myth of underground flooding. Through an intermedial dialogue between a human, a puppy and a dinosaur fossil, it assembles an investigation into time and space where myths, identities, and communities converge―where memories are f...

Unremarkable Zhou

2022

Directed by
Zhou Ning

Running time
14 mins

Unremarkable Zhou is a condensed version of the original music comedy film exploring Zhou Ning’s 2022 life under COVID lockdown in China. Blending nine songs with visual storytelling, it distills bittersweet, intimate, and absurd moments into a therapeutic and humorously introspective experience.

Curator and performer bios

Xinyu XuXX is a London-based artist-filmmaker and screening organiser, they are one half of Shuǐ Shào 水哨, an artist-led project created by Yuqing Lin and Xinyu XuXX that celebrates queer diasporic moving image and artists’ film through screenings and gatherings.

Yutian Hu (YUNA阿尘) is a musician and multimedia sound artist who animates objects and digital environments. Through electronic sound, in-situ listening, and minimal mechanisms, she cultivates fragile moments of presence between bodies, matter, and digital space.

Zhou Ning is a Chinese queer artist and comedian based in London, creating work that is awkward, honest and occasionally funny.

Additional info

With thanks to Centre 151.

Content note: this event will feature loud noises and flashing lights.