Posts Tagged ‘teenagers’

SUPER, GIRLS! and Director JIAN Yi at China Institute!

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

super_girls-thumbIn collaboration with dGenerate Films, the China Institute in America (125 East 65th Street) will present dGenerate title Super, Girls! (Chao Ji Nu Sheng) on Saturday, October 24, at 4:30 pm, as part of the Sinomathèque Film Series. An open discussion with director JIAN Yi will follow the screening.

Super, Girls! follows ten female teenagers on their quest to become instant superstars through the “Super Girls Singing Contest,” the wildly popular Chinese version of the “American Idol.” Discussing his unusual subject matter among Chinese indies, director Jian says in the “Director’s Statement”:

“Mainstream life is fairly underrepresented in independent Chinese documentaries as filmmakers tend to focus more on the society’s underprivileged groups. Yet ‘mainstream’ life in fast changing societies like China’s can be as different as Red Guards in 1960s, poets in 1980s, businessmen in 1990s and the ‘Super-girls’ in 2000s. What are the values of the family’s-only-child generation? How do they release their tremendous extra energy and money and embrace a globalized culture? China should not be just the playground for banks and corporations. China’s new generation of independent filmmakers look into the present-day mainstream culture and document and scrutinize this crazy and confusing time of the nation’s history.”

The Sinomathèque is an ongoing film series at the China Institute that showcases contemporary and historical work of every genre originating from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

For more information, visit the China Institute.

For further information, please contact sinomatheque@chinainstitute.org or 212-744-8181×150.

Get Out Your Microphones: Super, Girls! Coming to Brooklyn!

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Critically acclaimed earlier this year at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight, Super, Girls! is back for an encore performance in New York City.  Jian Yi’s probing documentary into China’s version of DiY reality TV celebrity culture will have multiple screenings at BAM on Wednesday April 28 (the 6:50 pm show will feature a special guest Q&A).

The Chinese equivalent of ‘American Idol,’ the ‘Super Girls Singing Contest’ spawned an unprecedented pop culture phenomenon. Drawing over 400 million viewers, the show’s runaway popularity spurred the Chinese government to ban it after only two seasons.

The film provides unparalleled, intimate access into the contestants’ lives over several months. Through candid interviews and footage of nail-biting auditions and competitions, Super, Girls! offers a fascinating look inside what the Chinese media have dubbed ‘The Lost Generation’ and their startling takes on sexuality and success in the new China.

The film received a glowing review by Ronnie Scheib in Variety, who does a great job summarizing the film’s story and background:

“Super, Girls!,” Jian Yi’s humdinger of a docu, follows a handful of young women auditioning for the 2006 edition of the vastly popular, soon-to-be-banned Super Girl contest, the Chinese equivalent of “American Idol.” Offering a slew of artless sociopolitical insights about the new generation of post-capitalist youth (out of the mouths of babes), the pic proves as entertaining as it is revelatory, thanks to the girls’ openness and extraordinary exuberance. Indeed their energy shanghais the film, creating a casual, unforced intimacy quite distinct from the ponderous head-shaking of many recent China pulse-takers.

The Super Girl singing contest exploded as an overnight cultural phenomenon, quickly becoming the most-watched telecast in the country’s history. The 2005 winner, Li Yuchun, garnered 3.5 million cell-phone votes, and all the top contenders morphed into instant superstars — adored by merchandisers, the media and hordes of zealous fans, their photos emblazoned on billboards and TV screens caught by Jian’s clandestine camera.

Read Scheib’s full review here.  And a more in-depth review by Megan Horvath at the British documentary website dfg docs.

Don’t wait! Order your tickets now. And then sit back and enjoy this clip of the first Super Girl champion, Li Yuchun, as she wows the crowd:

Super, Girls! is available for institutional purchase and exhibition through the dGenerate Films catalog.