Queer Asian World Cinema
- Chinese Culture Center
- Mar 3
- 5 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Queer Asian World Cinema
Date and Time:
Saturday, May 31, 2025, 1-3 pm
90-minute screening + 30-minute community conversation.
Location:
Join us for a powerful in-person screening of Queer Asian World Cinema, a curated program celebrating queer stories from across Asia. Co-presented by CCC and QWOCMAP, this special event is part of CCC’s API Heritage Month x Pride series, uplifting voices at the intersection of culture, identity, and resistance.
In-Person Screening
Experience four intimate, tender and moving films from the burgeoning seeds of love and solidarity to the verdant roots of family that illuminate how queer communities in Vietnam, Bangladesh, and the Philippines persist and flourish with radiant hope.
Join us for a post-screening dialogue exploring how we navigate and celebrate our queer identities within Asian cultural contexts.
Bonus: Online Screening Available
Can’t make it in person? Catch the full lineup of Queer Asian World Cinema online from Friday, May 23 – Sunday, June 1.
Streaming details coming soon!
About the Films
Saigon Kiss by Hồng Anh Nguyễn
Year of Completion: 2024 | Country of Production: Vietnam | Run time: 22:00
Mo roams through the rush hour traffic to avoid an unwanted phone call. When she meets Vicky by the side of the street with her broken motorbike, a visceral chance encounter unfolds between the two young queer women on the loud streets of Saigon.
Filmmaker bio: Hồng Anh Nguyễn is a queer German Vietnamese writer, director, and editor currently based in Frankfurt am Main and Ho Chi Minh City. Her short film SAIGON KISS premiered at the Max Ophüls Film Festival and went on to receive a Special Mention Award by the Queer Jury in Clermont-Ferrand. Recently, Hồng Anh directed documentaries for EST Eastern Standard Times, highlighting the voices of modern Vietnamese women. Her work has been funded by British Council Vietnam, Goethe Institute and the Asia-Europe Foundation. She is a recipient of the STEP writers' stipend from Hessen Film & Media and a fellow of the Kyoto Filmmakers Lab.
A Catholic Schoolgirl by Myra Angeline Soriaso
Year of Completion: 2023 | Country of Production: Philippines | Runtime: 18:00
This is the first time KAYA FUENTES experienced falling in love. As one of the finest students of an all-girls Catholic school, she is ungodly to develop a crush on SISTER AGNES—a nun who will soon be destined to a province faraway. Now more than ever, Kaya feels the need to confess before Sister Agnes leaves.
Filmmaker bio: Myra is a 22- year old student filmmaker who found her knack for storytelling after discovering Cinematheque Centre Iloilo in August 2018. In 2021, her first short documentary Panambi, co-created with her besties Jane and Katya, premiered internationally at the prestigious Ji.hlava International Film Festival. Now, she will debut as a fiction filmmaker in this year’s QCShorts with A Catholic Schoolgirl, which is also the recipient of Globe Prepaid's GoWATCH Film Lab seed grant. But most importantly, she co-parents a cute cat named Charlie.
Kraati | Transition by Dibarah Mahboob
Year of Completion: 2024 | Country of Production: Bangladesh | Runtime: 14:06
In the clash between modernity and tradition, parallel lives of an upper-middle-class daughter and her resilient house help intersect as they share struggles for autonomy and respect, navigating patriarchal norms.
Filmmaker bio: Dibarah is a researcher, feminist filmmaker, artist and muralist based in Dhaka currently. A Chevening Fellow, she has a postgraduate degree in Visual Anthropology and is the first Bangladeshi Ambassador of the Fearless Collective, an international feminist organization for arts-based community narrative retelling. Dibarah aspires to explore more authentic stories through exploring the “female gaze”.
Mom, I just broke up with a girl by Bùi Phương Thảo
Year of Completion: 2023 | Country of Production: Vietnam | Runtime: 27:47
Nhật (17) has just come out to her mother about her gender. Amidst her mother's tears of despair, her own tangled thoughts and emotions, and the cultural constraints, she has to find a way out.
Filmmaker bio: Bùi Tháo graduated from Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema in 2023, majoring in Film Directing, with the short film 'Mom, I just broke up with a girl'. She received a Certificate of Merit at the Golden Kite Awards 2023 of the Vietnamese Cinema Association and was one of the five films selected for the S-Express Vietnam 2024 program. She is the founder and director of Cinéus, a creative production house based in Hanoi.
About CCC
Established in 1965, CCC (the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco) is a non-profit arts organization with a rich legacy spanning 60 years. Throughout its history, CCC has played a pivotal role in elevating Chinatown through the arts, as both a vibrant neighborhood and a poignant metaphor for the immigrant experience. In recent years, CCC has undergone transformative growth, presenting thought-provoking international exhibitions and engaging educational programs. The organization’s commitment to spotlighting pressing and nuanced issues of our time sparks essential dialogues, uniting diverse perspectives and inspiring meaningful actions toward a more inclusive and equitable society. Some of its iconic programming includes “Chinatown History and Art Walking Tour,” “XianRui: Artist in Excellence Series,” “41 Ross: Artist-in-Residence,” and the “Hungry Ghost Festival.”
About QWOCMAP
QWOCMAP fuels creativity and leadership for LBTQIA+ BIPOC filmmakers, sparks new films, galvanizes collective action, forges solidarity, and strengthens movements. Founded in 2000, QWOCMAP is a nonprofit organization that funds, creates, exhibits, and distributes films that authentically reflect the lives of queer women of color both cisgender & transgender, and nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and transgender people of color of any orientation. Over 500 films have been created through our award-winning Filmmaker Training Program, the largest catalog of films by LBTQIA+ BIPOC filmmakers in the world. QWOCMAP presents the annual San Francisco International Queer Women of Color Film Festival, and provides critical funding for LBTQIA+ BIPOC filmmakers. Our vision nurtures filmmaker-activists as leaders of social justice movements that incorporate the power of art as cultural resistance and cultural resilience, cultural reclamation and cultural renewal.
About 41 Ross
41 Ross is a dynamic community art studio in San Francisco’s historic Ross Alley, led by the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco (CCC). Originally founded in 2014 through a collaboration between CCC and the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC), 41 Ross amplifies the voices of LGBTQ2S+, BIPOC, and other marginalized communities through creative experimentation and cultural engagement.
More than just an art studio, 41 Ross is a hub for makers, entrepreneurs, educators, and community members. It offers a wide range of programming—including film screenings, pop-up events, workshops, panel discussions, and interactive creative sessions—that encourage collaboration, learning, and cultural exchange. Over the years, 41 Ross has hosted iconic programs such as "Keyword School" (2014), "Chinatown Homecooking" (2018), and the "Womxn, Omen, Wǒmén in Chinatown Exhibit" (2018), and most recently incubated OUT Museum, the world’s first queer Chinese museum, in 2024.
Presented by:
