// APRIL 21st // 7PM @ the GRIFFITH THEATER
// Queer China film screening + Q&A w/ Cui Zi'en 崔子恩

DEAN will be hosting noted filmmaker and scholar Cui Zi’en to campus April 19-21. Cui Zi’en is a director, film scholar, screenwriter, novelist and an outspoken queer activist based in Beijing. He is now is an associate professor at the Film Research Institute of the Beijing Film Academy and one of the most well-known avant-garde filmmakers in Chinese underground film. He has published nine novels in China and Hong Kong, one of which, Uncle’s Past, won the 2001 Radio Literature Award in Germany. He is also the author of books on criticism and theory, as well as a columnist for magazines. Cui will be screening his film “Night Scene”

Summary:
A unique glimpse behind the scenes of Chinese gay whores, in this docudrama by the eccentric chronicler of gay Beijing. Night Scene is a film about one of the biggest taboos in contemporary China: male street prostitution. In a unique portrait of a twilight world in parks & clubs, that veers between documentary & fiction Cui’s camera focuses onto both real gigolos & actors who play gay prostitutes, without detailing precisely who is real & who isn't. There is no strict distinction between homosexuals & prostitutes, nor is there any moral verdict. Cui has however made an ambiguous, layered film, just as boundless as the lives of male prostitute in China. Set amidst this sea of untold stories is the gripping account of Yanyang’s personal crisis as he finds out that his father is gay. He sets out to investigate his father's hidden past. Some actors approached by Cui did not dare play the role of gay prostitutes, and some gay prostitutes didn't want to be filmed. It is the director's great achievement that he records a world that is hard to capture on video: 'We are nothing. We have nothing. We are a tragic generation”