top of page

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
![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
|---|

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.
bottom of page






