Lovers

Director:Wu Laobai

Screenwriter:None

Cast:None

Producer:None

Cinematographer:Zheng Hongbin, Wu Laobai, Wang Yanpeng, Lei Yiming, Hai Tong, Hao Hao, Zhao Chongwei, Dong Xiaorui, Nan Hesan, Yang Wenbin, Dong Qi

Running Time:32min

Region:China

Year:2023

Language:Mandarin Chinese

Production Company:None

Watch the Trailer

SYNOPSIS

Artist Wu Laobai, in three red trucks with slogans protesting against conversion therapy, toured on the streets of different cities, visiting various conversion therapy organizations in the process. The film documents the problems encountered by the three red trucks as they traveled through the city, as well as the views of some psychiatrists on conversion therapy. The film also shows us the way artists work when confronted with a public issue: when connection becomes a possibility, will it bring about more change?

Director Biography

Wu Laobai (Wu Qiong), works as an artist. Born in 1990 in Northern China, he was concerned about marginal groups’ rights and what they have been through. Through socially engaged art and transdisciplinary collaboration, his art practices could evolve into a public topic. Methods such as field research, documentary filming, theatrical performances, workshops, etc are used through his practices which is expected to go beyond the artistic space (such as museum) and towards a broader public space. He twists the roles of artist and activist, currently living in Southern China. Recently, he has participated in and initiated several social art practice projects, such as: 2015 – 2016, he self-published Xingqing Palace, an independent photographic publication documenting the human ecology in Xi’an Park, which was also shortlisted for the 7th Hou Dengke Documentary Photography Award; 2016 – 2017, he initiated Death ID, a project focusing on unclaimed deaths in Guangzhou, through transdisciplinary collaboration to raise the awareness of public by three cases. The project also was shortlisted for the 2nd Circle Art Youth Award; 2018 – 2019, facing the phenomenon of gay “conversion therapy” in mainland China, he collaborated with the gay police and several gay affirmative organizations to launch the Lovers Project, researched on 96 conversion therapy organizations, Then he traveled with three red trucks printed with gay rights relevant words through 6 cities in mainland. The Lovers Project was supported by many domestic and international organizations, medias, raising the awareness and the discussion of gender right; In 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19, Wu jointly edited the COVID-19 Aid Manual, which was then wide-spreaded; April 2022, to commemorate those who died of COVID-19, the Unfinished Farewell website was co-sponsored and established with artist Li Jia Bao.

Director's Statement

Lovers is an art project to reveal the situation of homosexual “treatment” in China, which was initiated by artist Wu Laobai and a gay policeman named Lin He. Inspired by the American movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ,it applies a creative way to speak up for the voiceless. By working with several LGBT rights organization, counselors and people in the community, as well as comparing CCMD-3 with the W.H.O.’s declaration on LGBTI people, Wu and Lin extracted three sentences, that are “Treating an ‘illness’ that does not exist”, “’Sexual orientation disorder’ still exists in CCMD-3”, “19 years has past, why is that?”, and printed the three sentences respectively on three red vans. Started from Shanghai, they began their journey of ground visits to the medical institutions that claimed themselves could “cure” homosexuality. Due to the lack of funding for the project, we are crowdfunding from netizens in the form of 20 yuan per kilometer, during the 213 days, 810 people donated 42269.6 yuan, and the three vans traveled 6 cities and Wu Laobai visited 9 medical institutions in person.

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