At the Stage When

An official, a propagandist, and a foreign teacher untangle their lives in the confines of a faculty dormitory.

A young man stands in front of a mirror. The night belongs to him. Every evening, he appraises his appearance, attired in a new shirt, leaves his apartment and waits in a poorly lit alleyway for his johns. One night he meets a female prostitute of his age who’s new in this part of town.

Hao Zhou confronts their younger self's compromised imagination, inviting the ghost of their youth to reconsider what lies ahead.

A nonbinary Chinese nursing student seeks a gender-affirming life in Iowa, despite facing challenges with racism and xenophobia.

An immigrant artist in Iowa retreats to frozen prairies, forests, and swamps, trying to find a meaningful story and escape from the anxieties of dislocation. Delivered as a film-letter to the protagonist’s little sister in rural China, the film considers his self-exile as well as mental health struggles that were too shameful to address back home.

A sham-married queer woman and queer man live together but have entirely separate lives. Yet, their schedules are linked by a propagandistic program that nudges them toward a single goal.

In this vulnerable documentary, the filmmaker captures how their family resorts to spiritual interventions in an attempt to rid them of their queer identity. The grandmother believes they must be possessed by a ‘demon girl’ – the unborn girl their mother was forced to abort before she became pregnant with Hao. Undergoing prayers, therapies, treatments and ceremonies, Hao paints a wry portrait of these complex relationships with admirable clarity and compassion.

Having built a colorful life in Iowa, a costume designer returns to their island hometown, Guam, to make costumes for a children's theater show and reconnect with distanced parents.