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The Homeless

China | 2025 | 84 min | Documentary | Mandarin Chinese
Director: JI Qiuyu
​Screening Time:
10/18/2025
4:30 pm-5:54 pm & 30min online Q&A

1st. Feature

World Premiere

Synopsis: 

This is a story of the homeless looking for belonging in modern society. In China's urban fissures, social worker Zhu Cong's crumbling "Lichen Shelter" harbors a group of outcasts: Xiaolong, abuse survivor adrift without legal identity; Waiwai, scavenger lured by streetlife… Their quests for belonging interrogate fractured notions of kinship and hearth in China's marginalized underbelly.

*Validated parking by the theater at the Trader Joe, 9290 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232

​Trailer

Film Still

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​About The Director

JI Qiuyu

Qiuyu is a native of Pingyao, Shanxi, China. She is a documentary director currently living in Kunming, Yunnan province.

Director's Statements

Through a chance encounter, I met a social worker who introduced me to a group of homeless people living around Huangxing Square in Changsha. This community sparked my curiosity: why do they become homeless? How do they survive? What loss drives someone to choose this life? And if they want to return to normal society, can they break free from this quagmire? These questions troubled me and inspired me to use documentary film to enter their world through the lens of a camera.

​Copyright@ 2025 ALULA Film Festival 

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