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The “China Queer Film Festival Tour... Rainbow Villager"

Project Proposal

1 Aims / Objective / Goals of project

1. To challenge censorship, enhance the visibility of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer), fight against discrimination and raise social awareness on LGBTQ issues- China has a very strict film censorship system. LGBTQ themed films are not allowed in public cinema and they could not get license for public distribution. By organizing public film screenings and discussions, we wish to make the invisible visible, call for freedom of expression on sexuality and sexual identity in film industry, educate the general public and promote cultural diversity, in hope that more cultural tolerance and public policy changes could be brought about.

2. To promote queer art. As an important form of queer art, queer films have been marginalized in LGBTQ groups due to political and financial reasons. There is little representation of LGBTQ people in China’s mainstream art community. With this project, we hope to encourage more artists to engage in the production of queer films.

3. To document LGBTQ Community. In addition, Chinese society and queer communities are in the midst of an era of rapid change, and the tongzhi movement is thriving, so video documentation is also especially valuable during this time.

4. To enhance the collaboration between queer artists and LGBTQ groups. Queer artists participate actively in LGBTQ movement, and LGBTQ movement promotes the production of queer art. Public education and art production mutually enhance each other. Queer art expands the horizons and terrains of LGBTQ movement.

5. To encourage participation in the LGBTQ community. We shall hold workshops and teach people how to make queer films. In this way, we encourage more people in the community to participate in queer filmmaking.

2 Brief description of project

“China Queer Film Festival Tour... Rainbow Villager” is a community art project targeting mainland China’s LGBTQ community. It combines the production and communication of queer films as well as film screening and social commentary in order to fulfill its pedagogical and entertainment functions. The project not only brings together queer artists and filmmakers, but also encourages more participation from China’s LGBTQ community to build a queer art community. It highlights the important role of queer art in China’s LGBTQ activism and combines art production and art communication. Starting in Beijing and spreading to other cities and provinces, the project is one of the first and most important nationwide queer art projects in mainland China.

China Queer Film Festival Tour (CQFFT) is a project in China Queer Independent Films (CQIF) that has gained some success during the past three years. Through queer film production and screening, we have not only made LGBTQ identity visible to the public but have gained support from the audience as well. The “Rainbow Villager” Project is another project in CQIF and it started in 2010. It brings queer art to the grassroots LGBTQ community in China. With digital film and story-telling, CQIF hopes to contribute more to China’s LGBTQ and art communities.

3 Methodology / Implementation of project

1. Advertise the project and select local partners for holding film festival tours and Rainbow Villager workshops in different Chinese cities. We will contact filmmakers, coordinate time and screening venues, and sign agreements with local partners regarding budget and itinerary.

2. Queer film screenings will target different audience groups by selecting different screening venues, including universities, gay/lesbian bars, LGBTQ centers and film saloons. Whenever and wherever appropriate, we will sell film tickets and souvenirs to support the project.

3. We will invite 2-3 guests, including queer filmmakers, artists, media professionals and LGBTQ activists, to participate in the screenings in every city and to have Q and A sessions after the screenings.

4. The project includes different forms of art, including documentaries, painting and photography. CQIF2010 is currently sponsoring Only love, a documentary on transgender people in China.

5. We will hold a three-day Rainbow Villager Workshop in each city. In these workshops, an experienced filmmaker will teach interested LGBTQ people how to make queer films. Some of the short films that the workshop participants make will be shown in the screening sessions
   
   There are two other forms of workshops: Digital Film Story Telling Art Workshop and Digital Image Story Telling Art Workshop. We will discuss the form of the workshop with local partners. For Digital Film Story Telling Art Workshop, we will lead workshop participants to share their stories, write shots scripts, and learn how to use the editing software and sound recording and mixing software. We will also hold a small-scale screening for the participants to share their art works. For Digital Image Story Telling Art Workshop, the trainers will ask the participants to share their experience, feelings and stories of their life regarding their sexual orientations or gender identities. Then we will discuses how to transfer these ideas to images. At the end of the workshop, every participant will make a short presentation of photo works and explain their ideas.

6. We will select some excellent works from the workshops and screen them in the screening sessions with the authors’ approval and the participants’ consent.

7. We will publicize the slogan ‘we want to watch homosexual films’ with specially-made T-shirts and increase the public visibility of queer art.

8. We will assist the works of queer art/film researchers and journalists. With their work, we hope to publicize queer art and combine queer art with academic research and LGBTQ activism.

4 Time frame of the project

Total schedule

2010

2011

China Queer Independent Films Tour (CQFFT)

Digital Film Story Telling Art Workshop (DFSTAW)

Digital Image Story Telling Art Workshop (DISTAW)

Details of "Rainbow Villager",

Digital Film Story Telling Art Workshop (DFSTAW)

Digital Image Story Telling Art Workshop (DISTAW)

5 Projected output

1. We will hold 25 screening and discussion sessions with the participation of 2000 people and 50 invited guests in one year.

2. We will finish one documentary supported by CQIF directly, Only love (about transgender people’s lives in some Chinese cities) and three documentaries made along CQFFT, by the filmmakers and guestspeakers.

3. We will hold Rainbow Villager workshops in six cities, involving 30 interested workshop participants and 30 of their film and photography works in a total of 15 days.

4. We will also hold four CQIF seminars and five lectures on queer films one university campuses.

5. The project will also generate eight reports and research papers on CQIF.

6. This project will also include a queer art festival in collaboration with other institutions and showcase some art works from Rainbow Villagers.

6 Target audience

1) LGBTQ communities in China;

2) Members from Non-Governmental Organizations;

3) Gay-friendly people;

4) Members from different cultural groups;

5) Art communities;

6) People who are interested in LGBTQ issues.

7 Dissemination of information

1. We have four LGBTQ support media: danlan.org (a Chinese LGBTQ web potal), aibai.com (LGBTQ information website), lessky.com (a lesbian website), feizan.com (LGBT SNS, Chinese-language LGBTQ facebook). We will post our promotion on these websites, through which we can reach a wide LGBTQ audience in China. We will also publicize the project and the events on some international LGBT web portals such as fridae.com and communicate the information to a broader audience.

2. We also have good cooperation with some popular film/culture websites such as douban.com (an online Chinese-language film and book club) and fanhall.com (an independent film website). The two websites are both very friendly to LGBTQ groups. Fanfall used to be a business partner of Beijing Queer Film Festival

3. We have had extensive cooperation with different LGBTQ groups in different parts of China. These LGBTQ groups also have their websites. These groups and websites will publicize the events to the local LGBTQ audience.

4. We will hold lectures and seminars in different cities and publicize our forthcoming events through these lectures and seminars

5. We will also publicize the events through some LGBTQ-friendly newspapers including China Daily, Timeout and Global Times.

6. We will also sell souvenirs including badges, postcards and DVDs to raise fund and to publicize the project.

7. Print flyers and disseminate at LGBTQ venues and LGBTQ-friendly bookshops and cafes.

8. Publicize the project through the specially-made ‘we want to watch homosexaul films’ T-shirt

8 How do you think your project will create impact on the art communities/the cultures that you want to engage with? How will it develop the field of your art form?

Film as art and media can reach ordinary people in ways that other forms and media cannot. There is an urgent need for LGBTQ-related films in China’s LGBTQ communities.

This project takes different forms and targets various LGBTQ communities. It encourages interaction and communication between event participants.

This project is supported by a wide range of media. In the past two years, we have also accumulated rich experience in event management and in problem-solving.

This project communicates the hope for freedom in artistic expression to a wide audience. It calls for a more liberal society in which LGBTQ people will have equal opportunities in artistic expression and dissemination. We also hope to break the silence of queer discourse in China’s mainstream media, to make China’s policymakers hear the demands of LGBTQ people, and to remove the official ban on queer films.