The Last Year of Darkness

A sweaty, neon-soaked elegy for China’s underground youth culture — part rave, part requiem.

In the fading light of Chengdu’s club scene, a group of young misfits dance, party, and connect under the radar of a city rapidly gentrifying. US documentarian Ben Mullinkosson follows their final year inside Funky Town — a nightclub which, for many, acts as a place of liberation, community, and escape. Through moments of intimacy and exhilaration, the film captures a generation teetering between hedonism and uncertainty.

This hybrid docu-fiction is a cinematic love letter to queer nightlife and ephemeral belonging. It captures the tension between freedom and surveillance in contemporary China, where subcultures bloom — then vanish.

Curated by the Chinese Independent Film Foundation and Beijing Queer Film Festival.