In 2017, Jen Sungshine and David Ng began to notice a seismic shift in Vancouver鈥檚 queer East Asian community.
The filmmakers had been involved in the community for nearly a decade. They鈥檇 actively participated in it for years through Love Intersections, the media arts collective they founded that鈥檚 dedicated to collaborative filmmaking and relational storytelling.
But 2017 was when they observed a significant uptick in unabashed, relentless organizing within the Queer East Asian community.
There was the formation of Ricecake, a Queer East Asian focused dance party and the founding of the House of Rice, Vancouver鈥檚 only all Asian drag family.
Sungshine and Ng felt a palpable energy galvanizing the community.
鈥淲e saw this 鈥榶ellow revolution鈥� happening, and we wanted to capture that moment,鈥� says Ng.
They trained their camera on Maiden China, a striking, provocative and unapologetic drag performer conjured into existence by Vancouver鈥檚 Kendell Yan.
The result of their collaborative filmmaking effort is Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny, a 20-minute documentary short that premieres this week at the 2019 麻豆传媒映画Queer Film Festival.
The film investigates how being part of a distant diaspora, as well as being othered as outsiders in Canada, informs the racial and queer identities of the subjects.
Maiden China was an ideal anchor for the film because her identity ties into the idea of being erased: a Riot Grrl turned alien in a white land who subverts and embraces East Asian clich茅s while claiming space for herself and others like her.
鈥淲e are so inspired by Maiden China,鈥� marvels Sungshine. 鈥淪he defies tradition. David and I are old queers now. We鈥檝e been to a lot of drag shows and Maiden China鈥檚 were the first where we saw ourselves reflected back with so much history and political resonance. It鈥檚 new. What Maiden China is doing is really, really cutting-edge stuff.鈥�
As a documentary, Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny is itself cutting-edge. Yan and Maiden China鈥檚 interwoven story is broken into five segments, each one representing a different element: wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
鈥淲e come from these deep philosophical, spiritual, metaphysical, familial and relational ways of being, and we wanted to trigger that, and create that kind of experience for our viewers and bring them into our own cultural exploration of queer Chinese diasporic identities,鈥� says Sungshine. 鈥淲e really wanted to weave the past into the present and transport us into the future.鈥�
The larger-than-life character at the heart of the film seems to exist outside of time. In one scene, Maiden China 鈥� face painted white with a band of red over her eyes 鈥� falls into a pile of rice that somehow leaps upwards; in another, she sweeps through Larwill Park, the gathering site of the 1907 anti-Oriental riots, to make an offering to her ancestors at an alter; in the next, Yan is with his dad and his brother in his dad鈥檚 kitchen, and they鈥檙e recounting the day Yan came out to his parents and his lifelong obsession with Miss Saigon.
Maiden China has her naysayers. In the film, Yan notes that he鈥檚 received criticism from other Chinese people that, being Chinese Canadian, he鈥檚 not Chinese enough to play with cultural stereotypes and iconography.
While those kinds of criticisms sting, it鈥檚 important to acknowledge where they come from.
鈥淭hose sorts of anxieties around who is Chinese enough or what is Chinese enough actually come from white supremacy,鈥� Ng said.
Added Yan:
鈥淚 hope that the film challenges people to see how complex all of those issues are and how a person鈥檚 individual feeling about how authentic their experience is, is completely valid and it doesn鈥檛 have to be the same as someone else鈥檚 to be authentic or valid,鈥� Yan said.
Yellow Peril: Queer Destinyscreens Aug. 20 at VIFF鈥檚 Vancity Theatre. Ng, Sunshine, Yan and the film鈥檚 other subjects will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.聽 On Aug. 17, Ng and Sungshine will discuss the challenges and joys of collaborative filmmaking practices in a film festival workshop.
Yellow Peril: Queer Destinyis one of a handful of locally produced shorts screening at the 2019 麻豆传媒映画Queer Film Festival. Highlights include Brunch Queen, a short documentary by Sean Horlor and Steve Adams about the iconic Elbow Room Cafe; two premieres from award-winning 麻豆传媒映画director Linnea Ritland; and films from indigenous queer artists Tyler Jacobs (Walk with My Spirits) and Jazmine Smith-Gladue (I Am Me).
The 麻豆传媒映画Queer Film Festival is the largest queer arts event in Western Canada and the second-largest film festival in Vancouver. The 2019 edition features more than 100 narrative and documentary films from 27 countries and runs Aug. 15 to 25 at multiple 麻豆传媒映画venues.
Tickets and schedule are online at .
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