Gay film festival keeps low profile Toronto Star

BEIJING–When China’s homosexual moviemakers decided to hold their fourth-ever film festival this year, they took pains to avoid confrontation with the cops.

They’d had confrontations before.

So this year, they didn’t issue any press releases. They picked a venue where they didn’t have to apply for a government permit. And they insisted on calling the event The Beijing Queer Film Festival.

“The translation of queer in Chinese is `ku er,’” explains film director Cui Zi’en. “In the Chinese language, it’s actually a less well-known word – a less provocative word than `gay.’”

The idea, Cui says, is not to wave flags in the authorities’ faces.

Yesterday, the five-day film festival opened in a village on the outskirts of Beijing without incident.

It’s no longer illegal to be gay in China: that ended in 1997.

In 2001, the Chinese Psychiatric Association delisted homosexuality as a disease. But gay books and films remained banned here in China and the gay community continues to test the limits.

Cui and other organizers hope this week’s festival goes smoothly – and doesn’t get busted. Gay film fests in the capital were shut down in 2001 and 2005, while a festival in 2007 squeaked by under the radar.

See Gay film festival keeps low profile Toronto Star

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