Pride on the Run: the Story of the Beijing Queer Film Festival

​Screening of documentary Our Story《我们的故事》and discussion with co-producer Xiaogang Wei. 

The first Beijing Queer Film Festival was held at Peking University in 2001 and has been on the run ever since. Chased by authorities and censors, the festival has had to ceaselessly switch up venues and find creative ways to get the word out to community members without getting shut down. 

Our Story《我们的故事》depicts the first decade of the festival’s life, showing how its organizers overcame great odds to create a space for LGBTQ voices and expression. Today, the Beijing Queer Film Festival remains the only film festival in China focused on gender and sexuality issues.

After the film screening, the documentary’s co-producer, Xiaogang Wei, will engage in a Q&A with the audience.

​

​Bio of Xiaogang WEI

​Xiaogang Wei was born and raised in Xinjiang, China, and is now based in France. He has been engaged in media production and social movement work in China since 1998.

​In 2007, he founded the pioneering LGBTQ webcast Queer Comrades, through which he directed and hosted more than 400 videos, reaching over 50 million views and playing a formative role in shaping queer visibility in China’s digital public sphere. Until 2019, he served as Executive Director of Beijing Gender, the first Chinese NGO dedicated to gender, sexuality, and sexual health. Through this work, he helped initiate a series of landmark programmes and events, including Queer University, the China AIDS Walk, the China Rainbow Awards, the China LGBTI Conference, and the All Gender Toilet Program.

​Today, he is a member of the organizing committee of the Beijing Queer Film Festival and the founder and president of the China Rainbow Collective Foundation (CRCF), which mobilizes resources for the Chinese LGBTI+ movement and builds international connections. His work has been internationally recognized, including the Vanguard Award from the LA LGBT Center (2013), the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic (2018), and inclusion in the book 50 LGBTQI+ Who Changed the World (2023).