Queer East Festival

Queer East Festival returns to London this spring with its biggest programme ever. This year, it’s expanding beyond cinema and into art and performance, showcasing film, theatre and dance from East and Southeast Asian makers. A vast programme of features, documentaries and shorts from 10 countries will be screened at venues including the Rio Cinema, BFI Southbank and ICA. 

Highlights include Crazy Love (Michio Okabe, 1968), an avant-garde cult classic documenting the radical spirit of Japan’s creative and artistic scene in Shinjuku in the 1960s, and We Are Here, (Zhao Jing, Shi Tou, 2015), a heartfelt documentary on lesbian advocacy. Opening and closing the festival are Takeshi Kitano’s historical epic Kubi, and UK premiere of South Korean transgender documentary, Edhi Alice (Ilrhan Kim, 2024), respectively. Live events include When the cloud catches colours at the Barbican, an exploration of two queer Singaporeans as they grow older, and a multi sensory exhibition at Queercircle in Greenwich.