The Missing (UK Premiere) | Queer East Festival 2024
Founded in response to the systemic lack of East and Southeast Asian representation on stage, screen and behind the scenes, Queer East Festival was formed in 2020 and has made its mark in London and across the UK with its bold programmes of LGBTQ+ cinema and visual arts, growing in popularity and size year-on-year, and celebrating its fifth anniversary this year.
For 2024, Queer East Festival launches its fifth year milestone with a remarkable line up of film screenings, arts and performance events across London from 17 to 28 April 2024 and then across the UK later in the year. The programme includes contemporary feature films, documentaries and shorts as well as special anniversary and retrospective screenings that showcase a wide range of LGBTQ+ stories from East Asia, Southeast Asia and their diaspora communities.
Queer East Festival’s features line up celebrates a remarkable selection of stories spanning 57 years of filmmaking and 10 countries, exploring different facets of queer love and identity.
Carl Joseph E. Papa’s The Missing (Philippines, Thailand, 2023) tells the story of mute animator Eric who, when looking for his missing uncle, unwittingly provokes the appearance of a familiar, sinister UFO, and the untangling of traumatic memories. This outstanding animation depicts the psychological journey of a mouthless character who must face up to that which cannot be spoken.
Eric works as an animator in the Philippines. He has a fairly normal life: a well-paying job; a nice, albeit messy, apartment; and he’s attracted to a colleague, Carlo, who seems to like him as well. One unusual thing about Eric, however, is that he does not have a mouth – literally – so communicates via a tablet and sign language. One day, his mother asks him to check on his uncle, who has been missing for a while. Agreeing to help, Eric unwittingly provokes the appearance of a familiar, sinister UFO, and the untangling of traumatic memories. Drawing on themes associated with the New Queer Cinema, Carl Joseph Papa’s outstanding animation portrays the psychological journey of a mouthless character who must face up to that which cannot be spoken.
Followed by an online Q&A with the director Carl Joseph E. Papa.
Please note this film includes some scenes viewers may find disturbing, including references to sexual abuse.