CineLABIA in collaboration with Queer Comrades*
Brings to Bombay queer stories from China
~Tingting Wei from Queer Comrades will be present for post screening discussion!~
Cures that Kill
China, 2011, 50 minutes
Director: Wei Jiangang
On 17 May 1990, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. In 2001, China followed suit and officially scrapped homosexuality from the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders.
10 years have passed since then, but the idea that homosexuality is a mental disorder is still rampant in Chinese society. A lot of mental health professionals are still “curing homosexuals”, publicly boasting about their transformative successes with homosexual “patients”. Tragically, these mental health professionals are often the first people approached by LGBT-people struggling with their sexual identity. These cures don’t heal: they kill.
In this documentary, Queer Comrades takes you to the mental health world, introducing you to experts who are fighting the misguided LGBT conceptions of their colleagues, and featuring 2 “ex-patients” who are adamant to tell the world about the dangers of enlisting in LGBT “curing” programs.
The VaChina Monologues
China, 2013, 30mins
Director: Fan Popo
The Chinese Department of Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou) staged the Chinese debut of “The Vagina Monologues” in December 2003. Since then, this feminist play, which came from the US and has been committed to the elimination of gender-based violence, has incited a vagina hurricane that blew all over mainland China.
Different groups like Zhihe Society of Fudan University, Shanghai Beaver Club, Beijing Bcome Group, performed this play on campuses, in theatres, in cafes, on the streets and in public transportation. The Vagina Monologues in China adopted various names like Cloudy Vagina, Our Vaginas, OurSelves and for Vagina’s Sake. All these names have the same so-called “ear-piercing” key word—VAGINA.
“Vagina. I’ve said it”- this is a speaking process as well as an acting process; a self-awakening process as well as a public-accepting process; a learning-recognizing process as well as a localizing process. After ten years, we revisit the stories of vaginas. We talk to the participants, visit current actors and listen to their vagina stories.
*Queer Comrades is China’s first and only independent long-running LGBT webcast. Our mission is to document queer culture in all its aspects in order to raise public awareness on LGBT matters.
In its monthly talk show, Queer Comrades provides a forum for wide-ranging and light-hearted discussions on the latest issues affecting queer life. In each episode, members of the Chinese and foreign queer community from various walks of life share their unique views and intimate stories.
In its video news items, Queer Comrades reports on recent events and developments affecting the Chinese and global LGBT-community.
Queer Comrades offers everybody an opportunity to understand and enjoy the development process of the LGBT community in present-day China and abroad.
Looking forward to seeing you all!
Sunday 24th August 2014 at 6:00 pm
Majlis Culture Centre
Flat 1 – Christina Apartments
Kalina Market, Lane opp. Samrat Electronics
Kalina Kurla Road, Santa Cruz (E)
All women and trans* welcome
