Queens of the Qing Dynasty

Director: Ashley McKenzie

2022 / 122min / DCP

Special Preview Screening Thursday, May 4th, co-presented with The Future of Film is Female, featuring a Q&A between FOFIF founder Caryn Coleman, director Ashley McKenzie and star Sarah Walker.

McKenzie’s follow-up to her knockout 2016 feature debut Werewolf—an intimate portrait of young methadone users in Cape Breton Island, Canada—is another compelling, empathetic study of characters on the fringe of society that confirms the writer-director as a major talent. Following a failed suicide attempt, introverted small town teenager Star (Sarah Walker) is subjected to constant invasive monitoring that does little to help her—until her encounter with An (Ziyin Zheng), a similarly genderqueer international student from Shanghai who’s been assigned to watch her in hospital, offers an unexpected chance for connection. Their blossoming relationship—two kindred spirits meeting across spectrums of culture, queerness, and neurodiversity—unfolds with alchemic crackle, leading up to a deeply moving denouement.

Q&A with director Ashley McKenzie and star Sarah Walker on May 5th at 6:30pm, moderated by Jessica Dunn Rovinelli

Q&A with director Ashley McKenzie and star Sarah Walker on May 6th at 6:00pm, moderated by Jourdain Searles