Archive for the ‘Academic Resources’ Category

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Zhang Xianmin on six recent Chinese documentaries

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Zhang Xianmin (photo courtesy China Independent Film Festival)

One of our key partners in China is Zhang Xianmin, who is a leading figure of the independent film scene.  Film producer, writer, programmer: these are just a few of his credentials. And now, Zhang will be contributing a series of articles for our website, offering his own perspective on Chinese indie cinema.

To kick things off, here are his thoughts on six recent Chinese independent documentaries, offering his own insights into the background on the films and filmmakers. A couple titles happen to be dGenerate titles.

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Posted in Academic Resources, Chinese Cinema Today, Film Reviews, dGenerate Titles | 5 Comments »

Jia Zhangke: “The Age of Amateur Cinema Will Return”

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

To commemorate Jia Zhangke’s monthlong career retrospective at MoMA, we’ve translated a seminal essay written by Jia, “The Age of Amateur Cinema Will Return.” The essay amounts to a manifesto on the purpose of cinema in shaping world culture and the significance of “amateur” filmmaking in opposition to an emerging global aesthetic of commercial professionalism.

The essay certainly speaks on behalf of the types of films that we at dGenerate Films cherish, and it accounts for some of the reasons we find these films so valuable to audiences around the world. Both Jia and several of these films will appear at the Asia Society through March and April.

Full essay after the break.

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New Book Series on Chinese Cinema

Friday, February 5th, 2010

“Critical Interventions” edited by Sheldon Lu is the latest series from University of Hawaii Press that aims at building a list of innovative, cutting-edge works with a focus on Asia or the presence of Asia in other continents and regions. Manuscripts and proposals exploring a wide range of issues and topics in the modern and contemporary periods are welcome, especially those dealing with literature, cinema, art, theater, media, cultural theory, and intellectual history, as well as subjects that cross disciplinary boundaries. The scholarship should combine solid research with an imaginative approach, theoretical sophistication, and stylistic lucidity.

The following two titles are released and available:

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New Book: Chinese Ecocinema

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Two of our friends in the academic community, Professors Sheldon Lu of UC Davis and Jia-yan Mi of The College of New Jersey, have edited a new publication that couldn’t be more relevant to the concerns of our time. Chinese Ecocinema in the Age of Environmental Challenge (2009, Hong Kong University Press) is touted as the first book-length study of China’s eco-system through the lens of Chinese cinema. From the book’s description:

Proposing “ecocinema” as a new critical framework, the fourteen essays in the volume collectively investigate a wide range of urgent topics in today’s world: Chinese and Western epistemes of nature and humanity; the dialect of socialist modernization amid capitalist globalization; shifting configurations of space, locale, cityscape, and natural landscape; gender, religion, and ethnic cultures; as well as bioethics and environmental politics. The individual chapters zero in on diverse Chinese-language films by talented directors such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Jia Zhangke, Lou Ye, Fruit Chan, Wu Tianming, Tsai Mingliang, Li Yang, Feng Xiaogang, Zhang Yang, Wang Xiaoshuai, Wang Bing, Ning Hao, Zhang Ming, Dai Sijie, Wanma Caidan, and Huo Jianqi. The book is a timely engagement with Chinese cinema’s ecological consciousness in a historic moment of unparalleled environmental crises and destruction.

The contents of the book can be found on the website of Hong Kong University Press.

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Best Chinese-Language Films of the 2000s: One Voter’s Thoughtful Ballot

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Betelnut

Betelnut (dir. Yang Heng)

In conducting the one-of-a-kind poll of the Best Chinese-Language Films of the 2000s, we received ballots from nearly 50 participants from around the world, including filmmakers, programmers, critics and other experts. One of our participants, Peter Rist, who teaches at the School of Cinema in Concordia University, sent a particularly lengthy account of his rationale for his selections, which we felt deserve an entry of their own. We’re also pleased that he considered both Betelnut by Yang Heng and Oxhide II by Liu Jiayin worthy of his final ten, since dGenerate distributes both Betelnut and the first Oxhide film and consider Yang Heng and Liu Jiayin among the most exceptional young talents working anywhere today.

Here is Peter’s list – his commentary follows after the break, as well as a list of his best films of the decade from around the world.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the full results of the poll, compiled from all of our participants!

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Zhantai (Platform), Jia Zhangke (P.R. China/Hong Kong/France/Japan)
Suzhou he (Suzhou River), Lou Ye (China/Germany)
Fa yeung nin wa (In the Mood for Love), Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong/France)
Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, Wang Bing (China), documentary, digital
Cha ma gu dao xi lie (Delamu), Tian Zhuangzhuang (China/Japan), digital, doc.
McDull, Prince de la Bun, Toe Yuen (Hong Kong), animation
Zui hao de shi guang (Three Times), Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan/France)
Hei yan quan (I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone), Tsai Ming-liang
(Malaysia/China/Taiwan/France/Austria)
Binglang (Betelnut), Yang Heng (China), digital
Niu pi er (Oxhide II), Liu Jiayin (China), digital

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Summer Program in Chinese Film

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

The University of Washington is now accepting applications for their third Summer Program in Chinese Film History and Criticism held at the Beijing Film Academy. The Program will be take place on June 28 to July 25, 2010.

Students worldwide are welcome to the program, administered through the University of Washington. Twelve quarter credits are transferable to other institutions. The program is especially well suited for upper-level undergraduates who intend to continue their studies in Chinese cinema, and for graduate students and professors who plan to teach courses involving Chinese films. No knowledge of Chinese is required.

The courses will be taught by professors from outside Asia (including Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, and James Tweedie) and a variety of faculty from the Beijing Film Academy. The program also includes meetings with filmmakers. The program cost (including tuition and lodging) is $3,300 + registration fee. Rolling admission will start on January 1, 2010.

Further details on curriculum and application procedures can be found on the program’s website. Questions should be addressed to the program director, Professor Yomi Braester: yomi @ uw.edu.

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Cui Zi’en Interview at 4th Beijing International Queer Film Festival

Friday, November 20th, 2009

We found an interesting video on Danwei.org, a website about media, advertising and urban life in China, in which reporter Jeremy Goldkorn interviewed Yang Yang and Cui Zi’en, organizers of the 4th Beijing International Queer Film Festival, at the festival’s opening on June 17, 2009. In this candid and humorous conversation, two of China’s leading queer activists talked about the history of the festival since its initiation as a student group event in 2001, the subtlety around the terms “homosexual,” “comrade” (tong zhi), and “queer” (ku er)–the last two were used as euphemisms to bypass the official surveillance–and the improvements (or the lack thereof) in gay rights in China.

Cui Zi’en introduced his film Queer China, ‘Comrade’ China, a pioneering documentary “[bringing] together forty of the most influential people in the movement from the past 30 years.” The film, now available for purchase and rental through dGenerate Films, was the closing documentary of the festival and the opening night film of 2009’s ShanghaiPRIDE, China’s first ever LGBT pride festival.

Video can be accessed after the break.

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Sixty Years of Unsanctioned Memories in the People’s Republic

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

At the 60th anniversary of the founding of the P.R.C., Fanhall.com published a list of fifteen key independent documentaries as their tribute to the celebration. Entitled “Sixty Years of Unsanctioned Memories in the People’s Republic,” these digital video films present vivid pictures of Chinese life, society and landscape rarely seen in government-approved news or the overwhelming reports about China in mainstream western media. They present and reflect on modern Chinese history from the perspective of common citizens and marginalized social groups. German-Jewish political philosopher Hannah Arendt distinguishes private and public realms as “the distinction between things that should be hidden and things that should be shown.” These independent works try to break the line and present the hidden, “private” scenes and stories to the public. The list also links to the synopses of the films, some with English translations.

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DV Management Regulation in the People’s Republic of China

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

In the New York Times article “Indie Filmmakers: China’s New Guerillas” reporter Kirk Semple mentions an “undefined gray area” in which today’s digital independent filmmakers work under the close watch (and occasional intervention) of the government.  As a background information resource, we have procured and translated the official government statement concerning the monitoring of digital video work in China, issued in 2004, and referred to whenever a party is prosecuted for making, distributing or exhibiting illegal films in China.

“Notice on Strengthening DV Management in Theater, Television and on the Internet” was officially issued on May 24th, 2004 by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. The following is a translation of its main part:

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New York Times article on the Chinese digital underground!

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

In the midst of Ghost Town-New York Film Festival madness, a little newspaper called the New York Times decided to spotlight the burgeoning independent Chinese film scene in last Sunday’s edition.  Reporter Kirk Semple explores the nuanced relationship (or lack thereof) between underground filmmakers like Ghost Town’s Zhao Dayong and The Other Half’s Ying Liang, and the Chinese government requirement that all films be approved by the state-run Film Bureau.

It’s a great educational primer for anyone seeking to understand the political context and artistic environment within which all of dGenerate Films’ filmmakers operate. Throw in a choice quote from dGenerate Films’ president Karin Chien, and you’ve got a must-read and a nice victory for us and our filmmakers.

Read the New York Times article “Indie Filmmakers: China’s New Guerillas” here

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