Our Story – the 10 Years "Guerrilla Warfare" of Beijing Queer Film Festival

The documentary tells the story of the 10-year “guerrilla warfare” of Beijing Queer Film Festival. Originated from Peking University in 2001, it has so far been celebrated five times. Considered as the first of its category and still being held event, Beijing Queer Film Festival is the only community-based non-governmental film festival with a special focus on gender and sexuality in China. As LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) issues remain politically sensitive, in addition to China’s strict media censorship, the film festival has encountered enormous difficulties in its development. During the past ten years, the festival venue has shifted from the western suburb of the city to the eastern suburb of the city, and from the city to the countryside. In 2011 it went back to the city and took the strategies of the ‘guerilla warfare’ because of government intervention and censorship. Based on the footages recorded and collected by each year’s organization committee, the film interviewed the committee members and let them tell the stories of the festival and of themselves.

Join Yang Yang, co-founder of Beijing Queer Film Festival in 2001, and the executive chairwoman of the 2nd and 5th festival in 2005/2011, in a Q & A. She directed and coproduced with her colleagues the documentary about the 10 years guerrilla warfare of Beijing Queer Film Festival: “Our Story”. In 2012, she was in one of the jury members for Teddy Award – Berlinale Panorama.

Yang Yang currently lives in Beijing where she is planning to start a first women film festival in China.