Posts Tagged ‘dgenerate’

dGenerate Titles Now Viewable Online on MUBI

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

We are proud to announce that ten films from dGenerate’s catalog are now available on MUBI (formerly The Auteurs) for online viewing. The acquisition of these new titles by MUBI marks another milestone in our commitment to bring to audiences the most contemporary award-winning independent films by native Chinese filmmakers, using the newest technology in the market.

MUBI is known for its role in giving film enthusiasts an indispensible resource for learning about cinema, through its online rental service, the MUBI Notebook filled with articles, reviews and festival reports, and its robust virtual community.  We are proud that our films are becoming part of this important vehicle for cinema enthusiasts.

Listed below are these new titles on MUBI. One-time viewing on their site is priced at $3.00.

Using

Betelnut

Meishi Street

Crime and Punishment

Er Dong

The Other Half

San Yuan Li

Super, Girls!

Little Moth

Raised from the Dust

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Best of the Decade, Taiwanese Style

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

By Isabella Tianzi Cai

Yi Yi (dir. Edward Yang)

Yi Yi (dir. Edward Yang)

The Taiwanese film magazine Fun Screen called on 68 filmmakers, film scholars, film critics, as well as other related film personnel to vote for the 10 best Taiwanese pictures produced in the years between 2000 and 2009. They were inspired by a similar poll conducted by dGenerate Films earlier this year concerning the 10 best Chinese-language films also made in the past decade.

The result of Fun Screen’s poll came close to ours: Yi Yi, which ranked no. 4 in dGenerate Films’ top-10 list, clinched the no. 1 position in Fun Screen’s top-10 list; and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which ranked no. 9 in our list, came second there. These films were first and second among Taiwanese films in the dGenerate poll.

The introduction of the poll acknowledged the results of the dGenerate poll in inspiring the poll of Taiwanese films: “At Fun Screen, we do not wish to challenge the list, but the list has made us acutely aware of the fact that Taiwanese films still lack a great deal of international recognition.”

As noted by Lin Wenqi, the chief editor of Fun Screen, “the goal of their poll is not about which film ranks higher than another, but is part of an effort to recognize and celebrate local film talent over the past decade. Fun Screen also just recently published 28 special reports with famous Taiwanese film directors over the past 10 years in a book called The Voices from Taiwanese Films.

The results of the Fun Screen poll can be found after the break.

(more…)

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Indie Filmmakers Featured in Time Out Shanghai

Monday, June 7th, 2010

The newest issue of Time Out Shanghai (English edition) has a five-page cover feature spotlighting the new generation of independent digital filmmakers. The article singles out seven “directors to watch” whom the magazine playfully dubs “The Magnificent Seven:” Ying Liang, Yang Heng, Zhao Liang, Zhao Ye, Zhao Dayong, Liu Jiayin and Wei Tie.  All seven are interviewed, as is dGenerate Films’ president Karin Chien.

The feature is not available online, but we’ve secured permission to make it available as a downloadable .pdf on the dGenerate website. You can download the feature here. Thanks to Nicola Davison at Time Out Shanghai.

dGenerate Films is the proud distributor of films from five of the “Magnificent Seven.” Learn more about their films by clicking on the following titles:

Liu Jiayin: Oxhide

Ying Liang: Taking Father Home; The Other Half

Yang Heng: Betelnut

Zhao Liang: Crime and Punishment

Zhao Dayong: Ghost Town


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Testimonial Feedback from Swarthmore College

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Kevin Lee (center) with students of Swarthmore College (photo by Shiyin Lin)

Last month dGenerate Films’ Kevin B. Lee gave a presentation and screening to students and faculty at Swarthmore College. Alex Ho, student organizer of the event, provided the following testimonial:

Many thanks for coming to Swarthmore College to speak about the growth in independent Chinese cinema over the past decade and what your company dGenerate Films is doing to help this movement gain greater exposure. Your talk was of great interest to our varied audience, which included film studies and Chinese studies students and faculty as well as the general liberal arts student who attended on a whim.

As an admirer of your work in online film criticism, I was excited to bring to our college your take on what makes this particular moment in film history so groundbreaking and important, given your extensive knowledge of and passion for world cinema. Your talk certainly didn’t disappoint; it was an accessible, sweeping introduction to Chinese cinema and its place in the foreign film market. At the same time, for even those more familiar with Chinese film, your talk was a priceless look into the works of up-and-coming independent filmmakers that most of the film world doesn’t yet seem to have caught on to. You definitely tapped into our school’s affinity for small-scale, relaxed seminars, peppering your talk with interesting anecdotes and seriously considering questions from our audience about the pertinence of the “dGenerate movement” to the general public in the U.S. and China. Thanks also for having an informal dinner with some of our students and letting us pick your brain about a multitude of topics within and outside of Chinese cinema.

Again, it was a pleasure to bring your presentation to Swarthmore. I hope to see your talk reach more and larger college audiences in the future. Certainly, any university interested in covering Chinese film in its curriculum, shouldn’t limit themselves to the well-known Fifth and Sixth Generation, but look also to the less Beijing-centric films that dGenerate Films works to distribute.

Best,

Alex Ho

dGenerate Films organizes presentations and screenings at colleges, museums and other institutions across the country. For more information, please contact info *at* dgeneratefilms *dot* com.

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Shelly on Film: An Inside Tour of The Chinese Independent Film Circuit

Monday, August 10th, 2009
The Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Home of the Chinese Independent Film Archive (Photo courtesy of Iberia Center of Contemporary Art)

The Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Home of the Chinese Independent Film Archive (Photo courtesy of Iberia Center of Contemporary Art)

By Shelly Kraicer

Whenever I am interviewed about Chinese independent cinema, the question that comes up more often than anything else is “Can these kind of films be shown in China?”

The situation is changing, rapidly, and in substantial ways. The answer used to be “Yes, sort of”.  Now, it’s “Yes, most definitely”.

Independent films, i.e. films made outside the government censorship system, can’t be shown in regular commercial movie theatres.  When I arrived in Beijing back in 2003, one had to do a bit of investigative work to find screenings; at art galleries, a few bars and cafes, and occasionally on university campuses: all low- to zero-profile events.  Now, though, there is, if not exactly a profusion, then something like a blossoming of screening opportunities for “unauthorized” Chinese indie films.

One such event, which I attended in early April, provides a handy opportunity to sketch out a provisional, though hopefully not too superficial overview of the Chinese independent film scene.

(more…)

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Ready For the Floor

Monday, May 18th, 2009

So after many starts and fits, the first batch of dGenerate film titles are available for purchase! In all modesty they are a fine-looking bunch of films and we’ve got something for everyone. DVDs and download-to-purchase are available at institutional pricing (intended for classroom and library use), download-to-rent are available for everyone including you at home for an easy-to-digest $5, and anyone wanting to screen our films in public can shoot us an email.

Check out our Film Catalog page to click through to purchase. If you click the “Buy (Meishi Street/Super, Girls!/San Yuan Li…)” link at the bottom of each film title, you’ll be taken to our partners at Reframe and Amazon.com for you to purchase immediately. If that’s not ideal for you, just visit the Contact page, shoot us an email, and we’ll figure out the best way to get you the film.

A fine looking collection

A fine looking collection

My recommendation? Buy the whole catalog on DVD, they’d look mighty fine on your shelf…

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