When the Royal Descends to Flirt with Passersby

Followed by a live Chinese fortune-telling / astrology reading by Le Mai Ai (in Vietnamese with English translation)

White Butterfly - Bạch Hồ Điệp
Catherine T. Nguyen, US, Vietnam 2024, 19 min. Vietnamese with English subtitles

Spring Will Come
Marion Hoang Ngoc Hill, US, Vietnam 2024, 17 min. Vietnamese with English subtitles

The Memory of Sky is Enough
Viet Le, Vietnam 2024, 35 min. Vietnamese with English subtitles

Đạo Mẫu (Mother Goddess Religion), a shamanic practice in Vietnam which was once deemed superstitious and banned until 1987, is now experiencing a revival in contemporary society. More than just a spiritual tradition, Đạo Mẫu embodies strong feminist ideals and holds significance in precolonial queer history, as its shamans—predominantly male—performed rituals by channeling female deities. In White Butterfly - Bạch Hồ Điệp, May, a Vietnamese American, returns to her family in Vietnam to mourn her mother’s death. As she confronts her family’s past, she seeks to understand why her mother chose to stay behind, leaving her daughter across the ocean. Spring Will Come follows Saigonese DJ Van Anh and her girlfriend Ly as they struggle to end their relationship. Their emotional pain is disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious woman who seeks to free the spirit of her lost father from their apartment. The Memory of Sky is Enough remixes the high-energy, high-stakes, centuries-old hầu bóng ceremonies, to re-envision chronic illness and disability. By reconnecting queer rituals in Southeast Asia, its diasporas, and worlds beyond, Viet Le asks: Is illness an initiation? Is pathology a power?

The screening will be accompanied by two Ziwei Doushu (Chinese fortune-telling) reading sessions by Master Le Mai Ai. Viewers will be randomly selected through their seat numbers after the film. To participate, attendees must provide their birth date and the hour of their birth.

Le Mai Ai is a Vietnamese Ziwei Doushu master who lives in Berlin.