Our friends at CNEX, producers of the prize-winning 1428, have announced an open call for film and TV documentary projects dealing with Chinese topics around the world. Selected participants will attend the CNEX Chinese Doc Forum, held on October 31st and November 1st in Taipei, Taiwan, with the opportunity to receive funding and attract additional support.
Details and application information after the break.
The High Life (dir. Zhao Dayong)
by Isabella Tianzi Cai
RealTime Arts, Australia’s critical guide to contemporary international arts, recently reviewed several films from the 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival – several by directors with films distributed by dGenerate.
In the Asian Digital Competition section of HKIFF, the awards went to Zhao Dayong’s The High Life and Yang Heng’s Sun Spots. RealTime’s Mike Walsh comments on the former, “Characters enter and then leave the narrative, frustrating our attempt to approach contemporary China in exclusively personal terms. It is worth comparing this to the structure of Zhao’s previous documentary Ghost Town which is divided into three parts, each focusing on a different character.” dGenerate Films distributes Ghost Town as well as Zhao’s debut feature Street Life (coming soon), and Yang Heng’s Betelnut.
In the same article, Walsh also highly commends Liu Jiayin’s mesmerizing documentary Oxhide II, the sequel to Oxhide (distributed by dGenerate). He writes,
By Isabella Tianzi Cai
At CinemAsia Film Festival in Amsterdam this year, Chinese queer activist, writer, and filmmaker Cui Zi’en’s Queer China, ‘Comrade’ China was selected for an official screening followed by a panel discussion titled “Queer Asian Imagination.” The film was grouped with eight other LGBT films in the Queer and Asia program, a key component of CinemAsia. Cui met with the program attendees after the film and answered their inquiries about LGBT culture in China. Below are some YouTube videos documenting the Q&A session with Cui. Also present at the discussion were Michiel Baas from the International Institute for Asian Studies, Hong Kong filmmaker Kit Hung, CinemAsia board member Jeroen de Kloet, as well as Yang Jin, who appears in the film. In the videos below, Cui’s answers in Chinese are omitted, but were spoken in English by a translator (seen in the orange shirt).
Cui points out one major difference distinguishing Chinese gay population from that elsewhere in the world. “Many young Chinese gay and lesbians, they also go to gay bars,” he says. “But one difference is in China, they also aspire to get married as heterosexuals. I think that’s one of the biggest difference.”
Cui also notes the tension between the state and gay cinema in China today. He says, “The law environment in China is very different in terms of filmmaking. There are thirteen prohibitions in China in terms of movie-making. One of them is that you are not allowed to make a gay-themed film. That’s why you can’t see gay-related films in mainstream cinemas or film festivals. Even a Hollywood movie like Brokeback Mountain, when they tried to enter the Chinese market, it was impossible.”
Part One:
More after the break.
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Poster for "Short Stays" film project at The Opposite House
From the official press release:
With a vision to support the growing contemporary Chinese art scene, The Opposite House in Beijing commissioned a short film collection project as an extension of their commitment to support emerging local artists in every medium, from sculptures to music and now, film. “Short Stays” is a unique project that has given a platform to independent film artists in Beijing to explore the concept and space of the House.
In collaboration with independent producers and film makers Zhang Xianmin and Samantha Culp, the idea is inspired by the use of the hotel’s space. From the new wave classic “Last Year at Marienbad” to the sleek “Lost in Translation,” hotels have always been great cinematic spaces. The closed door of a hotel room naturally evokes themes of mystery, memory, desire, escape, and curiosity.
“In this project, we wanted to peek through the keyholes into this borderline space, through the eyes of three fiercely original filmmakers,” says Samantha Culp, co-producer of “Short Stays.”
The short films by three award-winning young Chinese filmmakers—Liu Jiayin, Peng Lei and Zhao Ye—all based in Beijing but with festival cred from around the world, create a conversation around the nature of the hotel’s space and explore modern urban story telling in the framework of a type of creative experiment unprecedented in China. “Short Stays” also invited two up-and-coming photographers, Madi Ju and Lin Zhi Peng (aka 223) to document the filming process for the limited-edition DVD and booklet, adding another offbeat perspective to the project.
Details on the films, how to see them (for a limited time) and an online trailer after the break.
Mouthpiece (dir. Guo Xizhi)
Chinese Documentary Festival 2010
June 6-July 4, 2010
This year, the Chinese Documentary Festival presents thirteen films of high quality and with various themes. The topics include: environmental protection, gender issues, the sex life of the elderly, a portrait of a TV station, the life of a private detective and the history of Chinese theatres in San Francisco. These remarkable films reflect the ever-changing conditions of the Chinese diaspora.
All screenings will be held at the agnes b. Cinema at the Hong Kong Arts Centre. Visit the HKAC website for details.
Program listing follows.
Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Cinema
I was able to attend two events last month that showcased the strength, diversity, and vitality of new independent documentaries from China. The first, at BAFICI, the Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Cinema, was a section on recent Chinese independent docs that I curated for the festival. Intended as an abbreviated look back at the past 2 years or so of Chinese indies, I selected eight films (but could easily have chosen twenty) that represented different directions in what I called “radical” documentary filmmaking (using “radical” as broadly defined, in form or in content) in China today:
Siglo Films, the producers of Gai Shanxi and Her Sisters, have recently completed a new feature that promises to be another important look at Chinese history and society. Outside the Great Wall is a look at Chinese who are living in exile due to their involvement in free speech and democracy movements in their native country. The film will be screened this Sunday at the New York Taiwan Center. Details below:
Preview Screening of Outside the Great Wall
Sunday, May 30 – 6:30 pm
New York Taiwan Center
137?44 Northern Blvd , Flushing , NY 11354
718-661-9977
718-830-9526
Outside the Great Wall
Japan, 2010. 133 minutes
Directed by Han Guang
Produced by Tetsujiro Yamagami
Coproduced and edited by John Junkerman
Narrated by Roger Pulvers
At a time when China has joined the economic powerhouses of the world, it has also erected a new Great Wall against free speech and democracy, blocking the flow of information among Chinese and from overseas. This brave documentary features interviews with 12 prominent Chinese intellectuals and artists living in exile, from Nobel Prize-winning writer Gao Xingjian in Paris and novelist Zheng Yi in Washington, to Tiananmen student leaders Wang Dan and Zhang Boli, and the “Godfather of Chinese Democracy” Xu Wenli. The story of these courageous men and women, scattered to the far corners of the world, is the story of the struggle for freedom and human rights in China, from the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen to the present. Their fight continues today.
Raised From Dust (dir. Gan Xiao'er)
Next weekend, the 3rd annual Vancouver New Asia Film Festival will screen Gan Xiao’er’s Raised From Dust and Rachel Tejada’s Digital Underground in the PRC.
Raised from Dust
Friday, May 28th, 1:00 PM
A heartbreaking story told with compassion, Raised from Dust sheds light on the unexplored lives of the approximately 40 million Christians in China.
Digital Underground in the PRC
Saturday, May 29th, 4:45 PM
Six documentary shorts chronicle the changing state of China’s independent and underground film scene.
The screenings will be held at the Richmond Cultural Centre, located at:
7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond, BC
For ticket and event information, visit the festival website.
Petition (dir. Zhao Liang)
As this year’s Cannes Film Festival gets into gear this weekend, one of the standout films from last year’s festival will make its way to New York City for a special screening. Petition, the acclaimed documentary by Zhao Liang, will screen Sunday, May 16 at 6:15 PM at Anthology Film Archives as part of the Migrating Forms Festival.
From the program description (taken from the Harvard Film Archive):
“The dysfunctional Chinese court system allows citizens with grievances against their local governments to petition the court to clear or correct their record. Yet in order to do so, the petitioners must travel to Beijing to file paperwork and wait an indefinite period to plead their case. The vast majority of petitioners are impoverished villagers who travel far to the capital and typically end up waiting desperately in decrepit shantytowns for their cases to be settled, often pressured by hired thugs to return home. Following the saga of a group of petitioners over the years of 1996 and 2008, Petition unfolds like a novel by Zola or Dickens. Unwilling to accept defeat and seemingly unable to do anything but wait, the petitioners enter a strange and often terrifying zone, gradually losing touch with family and friends back home and with the cruel reality of their situation.”
dGenerate Films is proud to distribute Zhao Liang’s previous film Crime and Punishment, now available for pre-order. Find out more.
The Spiral Staircase of Harbin (dir. Ji Dan) [Photo courtesy of Fanhall Films
The Festival announced its awards for the following films (with citations by the jury in quotes):
