For our 18th edition, things are getting a bit spicy . We have an age 18+ only VR activation to check out at the Holiday Inn Midtown just across from AFS Cinema. Badgeholders will receive an e-mail next week to pre-register for time slots to view IN THE MIST (VR film), followed by short film KISS, both by Taiwanese director Chou Tung-yen, who will be attending the festival!
*Rush line (walk-in) list will be available for anyone who shows proof of a ticket to film programs at AAAFF. Can’t make it? KISS will screen virtually from June 24-28. Details to register to come.
Thank you to the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and the Taiwan Academy in Houston for making it possible for attendees to virtually cruise in a gay Taiwanese sauna from the comfort of steamy Austin, TX.
*Warning that this VR experience is intimate and contains sexual content, although not explicit.
*Eyeglass spacers available for users wearing glasses.
Can’t make it? KISS will be available to screen online during AAAFF from June 24-28.
IN THE MIST (2020) / 霧中 dir. CHOU Tung-Yen / 周東彥
Taiwan | VR260 | Experimental VR w/ no dialogue and subtitles | 14 min 43sec
In a dim-lighted room filled with mist, blurred figures of men are sipping the desire and loneliness from each other. You seem to have entered a forbidden zone and fallen into a state between dreaming and being awake, gazing at someone and also being gazed at by them.
Theater and new media director Chou Tung-Yen once again touches on the unspeakable life experience of the gay community culture, exploring a male sauna through poetic lenses to take a peek into something that’s hidden under the desire—the love without love.
In a dim-lighted and misty room, blurred figures of men are sipping the desire and loneliness from each other. You have entered a forbidden zone, exploring a male sauna through poetic lenses to take a peek into something hidden under the desire—the love without love.
Festivals & Awards
2020 Kaohsiung Film Festival - XR Dreamland (Taiwan / World Premiere / Offline)
2021 Venice International Film Festival - Venice VR Expanded (Italy / International Premiere)
2021 Taipei Film Festival (Taiwan)
2021 Montréal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma - *Panorama VR Prize Winner (Canada)
2021 Kaohsiung Film Festival - VR Competition - *VR Special Mention Winner
2021 Geneva International Film Festival (Switzerland)
2021 Melbourne Fringe Festival (Australia)
2022 Queer East Film Festival (UK)
2022 ShorTS - International Film Festival (Italy)
2022 Locarno Film Festival - Locarno Extra - Virtual Reality (Switzerland)
KISS / 霧中 dir. CHOU Tung-Yen / 周東彥
Taiwan | Experimental narrative w/ no dialogue and subtitles | 12 min
In the aftermath of never-ending disasters and epidemics, fewer and fewer people are still surviving. They said the apocalypse has come.
K walks alone in the long-abandoned gay sauna. Human body contact has become an anecdote of the last century. The decadent and damp smell permeates, and only an old tree seems to have taken root here, stretching its withered branch, seemingly longing for something.
Dir. CHOU Tung-Yen uses a sci-fi fantasy to recount the loneliness of modern people trapped in times of epidemics and isolation and depicts the longings for others’ touches and the endless search for self in a near-future scenario.
Festivals & Awards:
2021 台灣 高雄電影節
2022 美國 舊金山同志影展
2022 比利時 安特衛普酷兒藝術節
2022 美國 西雅圖酷兒影展
2022 香港 InDPanda 熊貓國際電影節
2022 美國 印第安納波利斯同志影展
2022 巴西 MixBrasil同志影展
2022 澳洲 墨爾本酷兒影展
2023 加拿大 多倫多酷兒影展
2021 Taiwan - Kaohsiung Film Festival
2022 United States - Frameline Film Festival
2022 Belgium - Antwerp Queer Arts Festival
2022 United States - Seattle Queer Film Festival
2022 Hong Kong - InDPanda International Film Festival
2022 United States - Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival
2022 Brazil - MixBrasil LGBT Film Festival
2022 Australia - Melbourne Queer Film Festival
2023 Canada - Toronto Queer Film Festival