October 18: The Last Year of Darkness

DARKMATTER Collective and IDFA present a night of film, drag performance and music at the Vondelpark Pavilion as part of Amsterdam Dance Event.

Naza Løtus (House of Løstbois, winner of the house of Superball 2023) will start the evening with a drag king performance presenting their interpretation of Eastern Asian aesthetics that incorporates dark and eccentric elements, deviating from Asian stereotypes. Following the screening Naza Løtus and host Zoë Horsten (Pan Asian Collective) will discuss the film and the pan Asian queer community in Amsterdam. Are there similarities between the nightlife of Chengdu as presented in the film and Amsterdam? And what is the importance of creating a queer safe space?

Tickets to this screening include the afterparty with Ambu Bambu.

China, United States - 2023 - Ben Mullinkosson - 95 min.

Funky Town is one of the last safe and free places in Chengdu for free-spirited young adults. But that’s about to change, because the expansion of the subway means the club, which is already surrounded by a construction site, will have to go. The Last Year of Darkness captures the lives of a handful of regulars in scenes that switch from the lyrical to the intensely real.

These twenty-something clubbers are queer, performance artists, DJs—outsiders of every kind. They plod through the days to show off their true splendor at night. Most of their conversations are about trying to find—or create—a place for themselves in the oppressive society around them.

We follow these young adults from the bleak daytime realities of money worries, family arguments and uncertainties, to euphoria in the darkness. In stroboscopic quick-cut scenes set to uplifting techno beats, we see the clubbers coming to life and dancing, flirting, kissing, drinking, smoking—till the inevitable moment when their dream world meets the shock of reality.

• Venue: IDFA Vondelparkpaviljoen, Vondelpark 3 in Amsterdam. Find here all info about the venue’s accessibility.
• Time filmscreening: 7.30 PM - 10.00 PM.
• Time afterparty: 10.0 PM-01.00 AM
• Ticket price: Regular: € 12,00. CJP and Stadspas holders: € 9,00. Students: € 6,00.
• The film is English subtitled.