X I O N A
Film Director | Queer & Gender Researcher
Xiona Li is a Chinese trans-feminine filmmaker based between London and Chengdu. Her work explores gender, identity, and intersectionality, often centering East Asian and queer experiences. Her experimental documentary works include Erosion (2025) and Friction (2024), which explores the layered lives of trans+ individuals in mainland China. Her previous narrative fiction works includes The Artist (2021), and Tropical Night (2021).
Heavily influenced by philosophical enquiries and queer theory, Xiona’s filmmaking technique ranges across hybrid documentary, narrative fiction and experimental filmmakingto create nuanced, embodied narratives. Through her practice, she seeks to challenge create new visual languages for complex identities.
Work Hightlights
Friction - Short Documentary Trailer
FRICTION (2024) Short Documentary
an experimental exploring the social erasure and segregation of trans identities using mannequin symbolism and machine-learning filtered imageries. Reveal the ‘friction’ in body conceptualization.
Features Yuqi Zhang, a closeted transgender woman in her 30s living in mainland China, she faces a harrowing choice: risk social abandonment by embracing her true self or endure the mental strain of remaining invisible to stay safe.
Review from YOUKI JURY:
"As moving image producers ourselves we share a deep scepticism towards AI generated imagery. And still, this film impressed us by its clever use of artificially generated imagery. The protagonist's analyses of societal segregation is accentuated by the technology’s need to yet again force gender onto our anonymized storyteller. FRICTION uncovers skillfully the deep rooted gender binary around and within us that also shapes the technologies to come."
- (YOUKI Jury 2025) Fredi Klutas, Ennio Rocca, Andrea Elaiza Arnold and Isa Schieche
Review from MAKE NEWS:
"Brilliantly original and intersectional. Xiona Li's use of generative media is expressive, not performative-making this one of the most innovative and resonant pieces. It's a meditation on identity, surveillance, and reclamation. The writing and pacing are razor-sharp. Some of the cinematography is minimalist, but with intent. This is art with teeth. My top recommendation."
MALAKAI, MAKE NEWS JUDGEl
Past Works:
Wake Up - Short Documentary Trailer
Documentary on WAKE UP
An avant-garde queer performance merging fine art, fashion, and ritual in a historic church setting.
The fusion of queer art and the mystical ambience of the ancient church offers the audience a visual and sensory feast that transcends time and cultural boundaries. Fluid gender, redefined identity, and the collision of tradition and modernity come together to craft an unrepeatable, epic artistic narrative.
A Date with the Ocean - Experimental Doc Short
A DATE WITH THE OCEAN (2024) Short Documentary
The ocean has been trying to communicate its pain for years, through rising tides, dwindling fish stocks, and coral bleaching; but humanity hasn’t always listened.
‘A Date with the Ocean’ is an unscripted experiment that prompts its participants to consider how they could forge a happy, harmonious and symbiotic relationship with the Ocean.
The Artist - Teaser Trailer
THE ARTIST (2021) Narrative Feature
A visually arresting 59-minute film that delves into the psyche of Peter, a struggling artist whose obsession with his craft leads him down a dark and surreal path.
Disillusioned artist discovers a mysterious wound that bleeds the perfect medium for his paintings, driving him into a haunting spiral of ambition, obsession, and the ultimate price of artistic genius.
Tropical Night - Short Film
TROPICAL NIGHT (2021) Short Film
A high school girl in Asia whose father left the family at her early age is struggling financially with her mother, she gains empowerment and new directions from a coincidental encounter with an online sex-cam girl.
Full Filmography:
Click on Poster for More Details
Fritcion
short documentary (2024)
A Date with the Ocean
experimental short (2024)
The Artist
drama feature (2021)
Tropical Night
drama short film (2021)
White Piano
dreama feature film (2017)
Under the Streetlight
drama short film (2016)
Screenings
Friction (2024)
Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, Nov 2025
Make News: Short Film Showcase, The American Cinematheque, Los Angelos, Nov 2025
Make News: Short Film Showcase, LOOK Dine-in Cinema, Atlanta, June 2025
Make News: Short Film Showcase, Angelika Film Centre, New York City, June 2025
Trans Video Buffet, Atlas Cinema, London, May 2025.
Unrestricted View Film Festival, Hens & Chicken Cinema, London, May 2025
Muchroom Queer Bar Event, Muchroom, Chengdu, March 2025
A Date with the Ocean (2024)
Earth Week Exhibition, London College of Communication, London, Apr 2024
White Piano (2017)
Private Event, Green Mountain Cafe, Beijing, Dec 2017
Under the Streetlight (2016)
Royal Holloway University of London, Lecture Theatre. London, March 2019
Private Event, Green Mountain Cafe, Beijing, Nov 2016