Posts Tagged ‘moma’

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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Jia Zhangke Retrospective at MoMA in March

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

From the Museum of Modern Art press release:

Jia Zhangke: A Retrospective is the first complete U.S. retrospective of this internationally celebrated contemporary filmmaker who, in little more than a decade, has become one of cinema’s most critically acclaimed artists and the leading figure of the sixth generation of Chinese filmmakers.  The exhibition screens in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters from March 5 through 20, 2010, and includes Jia Zhangke’s (Chinese, b. 1970) entire oeuvre: eight features and six shorts, dating from 1995 to 2008.  The retrospective is organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.

The director will be at MoMA with Zhao Tao—his leading actress since her debut in Zhantai (Platform) (2000)—to introduce most of his films at screenings between the opening night film on Friday, March 5, at 7:00 p.m. of Shijie (The World) (2004), through the screening on Monday, March 8 at 4:00 p.m. of Black Breakfast (2008) and Sanxia haoren (Still Life) (2006).  Jia will also participate in a special Modern Mondays event at MoMA on the evening of March 8 at 7:00 p.m., where he will discuss his recent films and present two shorts and a sneak preview of a segment of his upcoming feature, Shanghai Chuan Qi (I Wish I Knew, 2010), followed by a discussion.

Full press release and schedule after the break.

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The New Home for Independent Chinese Cinema

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Digital Underground in the People's Republic Welcome to the brand spanking new dGenerate Films blog! For those of you unfamiliar with us, dGenerate Films is a new non-theatrical US-based film distribution company focused on contemporary independent cinema from China. Why China? Well, no country in the world is going through a greater transformation and having a greater impact on the world right now, but to most outsiders it’s largely been invisible. It’s our mission to provide first-person, unfiltered looks at the issues facing China today and expose people to the amazing cinematic stories being told by these revolutionary filmmakers.

We’ve assembled an initial slate of films that we couldn’t be prouder of, by such up-and-coming filmmakers as Ying Liang, Ou Ning, and Jian Yi. And our film topics range from budding pop stars to war-era comfort women to the industrialization of rural China.

We’re just getting things underway, having done recent screenings of our films at places like the MOMA, Brooklyn Academy of Music, China Institute, and University of Maryland, and have begun pre-sales of our institutional DVD’s. Our focus is on educational and institutional sales of DVD and downloads, and exhibition screenings at public performance venues like museums, community organizations, and film forums.

So check out our film catalog, bookmark us, add our feed, signup for our email newsletter. We’ll not only be growing our collection, but intend for our site to be the authority on contemporary independent Chinese cinema. Welcome, the dGenerate Films team looks forward to seeing you back soon!