Our Marriages: Lesbians Marry Gay Men

Genre: Documentary

Length: 42 min

Year: 2012

Directors: He Xiaopei, Yuan Yuan

Cast: Xiao Xiong, Jing Jing, Ke Le, Shan Shan

Homosexuality has taken many forms in different cultures and times. As marriage and reproduction continue to be highly valued in traditional Chinese familial culture, some lesbians and gay men have adopted an unusual arrangement to alleviate such pressure. Consenting lesbians and gay men negotiate contract marriages with detailed terms and conditions for marriage. They carry out the wedding ceremonies for their families, and purportedly live as normal heterosexual couples to the unknowing eye.

How do lesbians negotiate their lives as lesbians and filial daughters? How are such contract marriages arranged? How do the couples navigate the complicated duties and obligations of married life? Our Marriages follows the negotiations, weddings, and lives of four lesbians for two years in a large city in Northeast China, documenting their maneuvers and problems. The film raises important questions and reflections in regard to the institution of marriage and homosexual life in contemporary Chinese society.

Yvo and Chrissy

Genre: Documentary

Length: 60 min

Year: 2017

Director: He Xiaopei

The film presents itself as a quest for identity, humanity, and happiness through the act of giving up the things that typically define us: wealth, property, stability, or the gender we are assigned at birth. The film follows two people from England, telling their stories in an attempt to inspire the ‘mainstream’ to rethink the way money, family, stability, gender, and sex are linked to well-being.

He Xiaopei (Director)

He Xiaopei was trained to be a shepherd in her youth, and mountaineer after college. A government job made her an economist, while the women's movement and gender studies converted her into a feminist. Her experience organizing LBGTQ events in China compelled her to set up the Pink Space Sexuality Research Centre.

Yuan Yuan

Yuan is an independent documentary filmmaker and graduate of Beijing Film Academy. She is a founding member of the Pink Space Sexuality Research Centre. Her works include: “Wedding Photographs on Qianmen Street for Same-sex Couples on Valentine’s Day” (Beijing, 2009), “Rural Women and Children with HIV” (China Pingyao International Photography Festival, 2011), “At This Moment, I Want to Be” (Special Mention at the 2013 Pride Photo Award), “The Lucky One” (26 mins), “Our Marriages” (81 minutes).

BARCO