Posts Tagged ‘Subject: Public Health’

COMING SOON: Using (Long Ge)

Friday, August 7th, 2009

ZHOU Hao. China, 2008. Documentary, 105 minutes.
Mandarin w/ English subtitles.

Using An unusual relationship develops between an urban Chinese couple struggling with heroin and a filmmaker chronicling their addiction, in this provocative documentary on drug abuse, filmmaking and friendship.

For three years, filmmaker Zhou Hao chronicled the lives of Long and Jun, a couple struggling with heroin addiction in Guangzhou. Zhou captures Chinese junkie subculture, its members languishing in a slum flophouse, the equivalent of a modern day opium den. When Long is hospitalized after a failed robbery, Zhou speaks out from behind the camera to intervene. Still, Long and Jun persist, soon dealing drugs full-time to make ends meet. As the couple increasingly offers lies for answers, Zhou must confront his ethical responsibilities to them, as a friend and a documentarian.

USING probes a dark, cruel reality of contemporary Chinese society that has rarely been seen by any audience. Addicts disclose techniques for dealing with police, confronting sham suppliers and staying high throughout the day. Zhou’s unflinching depiction of his friends’ repeated attempts to quit blurs the line between filmmaker and subject, and raises provocative questions about the ways in which each uses the other.

Director’s Bio:
Zhou Hao

Select Film Festivals:

•    2007 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
•    2008 Hong Kong Film Festival
•    2008 The 5th China Independent Film Festival
•    2008 Taiwan International Documentary Festival

Film Clips:


FORMATS
PRICE
AVAILABILITY
DVD (Colleges, Universities, Institutions)
$295
Fall ‘09 | Pre-order now
DVD (K-12, Public Libraries, Select Groups)
$95
Fall ‘09 | Pre-order now
Digital Download (Purchase)
$195
Fall ‘09 | Pre-order now
Digital Download (Rental)
$5
Fall ‘09 | Pre-order now
Public Performance Exhibition (NTSC Beta, DVD)
Contact

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Queer China, ‘Comrade’ China (Zhi Tong Zhi)

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Cui Zi’en. China, 2008. Documentary, 60 minutes.
Mandarin w/ English subtitles.

Queer China China’s most prolific homosexual filmmaker presents a comprehensive historical account of the queer movement in modern China. QUEER CHINA, ‘COMRADE’ CHINA documents the changes and developments in Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender culture that have taken place in China over the last 80 years. Unlike any before, this film explores the historical milestones and ongoing advocacy efforts of the Chinese LGBT community. The film examines how shifting attitudes in law, media and education have transformed queer culture from being an unspeakable taboo to an accepted social identity. The film culminates with the submission of Dr. Li Yinhe’s Same-sex Marriage Bill to the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People’s Congress in 2003, a major landmark event in the ongoing struggle for acceptance of queer identity in China.

Directed by Cui Zi’en, China’s leading queer theorist, activist and scholar, the documentary includes rarely seen footage of the first ever appearance of gays and lesbians on State television, including Cui Zi’en himself. The film features exclusive interviews with over three dozen leading queer activists, scholars and filmmakers, including Shi Tou, Li Yinhe and Zhang Yuan. The opening night film of 2009’s ShanghaiPRIDE, China’s first ever LGBT pride festival, QUEER CHINA, ‘COMRADE’ CHINA is nothing less than the most authoritative account of queer cultural history in China to date.

Director’s Bio:
Cui Zi’en

Select Film Festivals:

•    Official Selection, Pusan International Film Festival
•    Official Selection, Vancouver International Film Festival
•    Best Documentary, 24th Turino GLBT Film Festival
•    Best Documentary, Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
•    Opening Night Film, Shanghai PRIDE
•    Official Selection, Beijing Queer Film Festival

Film Clips:

FORMATS
PRICE
AVAILABILITY
DVD (Colleges, Universities, Institutions)
$295
DVD (K-12, Public Libraries, Select Groups)
$95
Digital Download (Purchase)
$195
Fall ’09 | Pre-order now
Digital Download (Rental)
$5
Fall ’09 | Pre-order now
Public Performance Exhibition (Digibeta, BetaSP, DVD)
Contact

Related posts

Little Moth (Xue Chan)

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

PENG Tao. China, 2007. Narrative, 99 minutes.
Hubei dialect w/ English subtitles.

Little Moth “Suspenseful, moving yet ruthlessly unsentimental.” – Jason Anderson, Eye Weekly

A nearly perfect little film.” – Shelly Kraicer, Vancouver International Film Festival

When an impoverished country couple adopts a crippled young girl and puts her to work begging on city streets, a battle soon ensues over her fate.

Luo Jiang and Guihua, a poor, middle-aged couple with few prospects, decide to buy an 11-year-old girl, Xiao Ezi (aka “Little Moth”), for $140 in rural China. Xiao Ezi’s life is in peril, as she is forced to earn money for her new parents as a beggar while suffering from a blood disease that leaves her unable to walk. Her greedy adoptive father, Luo Jiang, refuses to buy her medicine, while Guihua’s growing maternal affection wracks her with guilt. After a run-in with local extortionists, the three flee into the territory of the unsavory Mr. Yang, whose one-armed boy Xiao Chun is also forced to beg. Inevitably the grownups take turns taking advantage of each other, giving the children a rare opportunity to develop a protective bond with one another.

With virtually no budget, a hand-held digital camera and a cast of non-professionals, Peng Tao turns the sordid street life of small town China into a chain-reaction tale of human cruelty and unforgettable suspense. LITTLE MOTH “melds the anger and storytelling scope of Dickens, the doc-influenced immediacy and sensitive gaze of the Dardenne brothers, and the best tendencies of recent Chinese cinema.” (Robert Koehler, Variety).

Director’s Bio:
Peng Tao

Reviews:

Variety
New York Times

Select Film Festivals:

Hong Kong International Film Festival
Locarno International Film Festival
Bucharest International Film Festival
Cairo International Film Festival
Brisbane International Film Festival

Film Clip:

Visit Reframe for more information on Little Moth

FORMATS
PRICE
AVAILABILITY
DVD (Colleges, Universities, Institutions)
$295
DVD (K-12, Public Libraries, Select Groups)
$95
Digital Download (Purchase)
$195
Fall ‘09 | Pre-order now
Digital Download (Rental)
$5
Public Performance Exhibition (NTSC BetaSP, DVD)
Contact

Related posts