Shattered (dir. Xu Tong)
The 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival begins March 20th and runs to April 5th. We’re pleased to see that several films from directors who have films in the dGenerate catalog will be presenting new works, including some world premieres like Yu Guangyi’s Bachelor Mountain and Xu Tong’s Shattered. More information on these films, and a list of other Chinese films screening at HKIFF, after the break.
By Isabella Tianzi Cai
Karamay (dir. Xu Xin)
Known as the “12/8/94 Incident,” a devastating fire broke out in the Karamay Friendship Theater in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, killing 323 people, 288 of whom were schoolchildren. Chinese director Xu Xin’s Karamay, which premiered at this year’s 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival, brings back these nearly erased memories of the past.
With little knowledge of the incident at the time it happened, Xu Xin expected the fire to be just another unwanted accident when he first started the project. However, in the making of the documentary, where he interviewed over 60 people related to the victims, Xu gained a much deeper understanding of the underlying tragedy. He tries to convey this agony, shooting in black-and-white with no music or voice-over throughout the film’s somber six-hour running time.
Danwei.org interviews Zhao Dayong, Chinese independent filmmaker and director of Street Life and Ghost Town (both distributed by dGenerate). Zhao’s latest feature film The High Life premiered at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival. In this interview Zhao introduces these films, as well as his documentary My Father’s House and experimental feature Rough Poetry. More information about Zhao and his work is available on his website Lanternfilms. Video also on Tudou.
