Visible Secrets ’s Women Filmmakers 09.10.09

03.11.09 by: Season sponsored Gala Tickets Confucius Institute A UK-first season of new £10.00 full/£8.00 concs. Tickets Gala Screening/ include a glass of wine or a films from Hong Kong’s Tsingtao beer. Lovers on the Road (15) Fri 30 Oct women filmmakers, Opening Gala/ 20:20 Dir Tsang Tsui Shan/2008/ This Darling Life (12A) including a focus on 75 mins/Mandarin wEng ST Fri 9 Oct Joman Chiang, Dick So, the contemporary films 20:30 Otsuka Masanobu Dir Angie Chen/2008/80 mins/ Lovers on the Road follows of award winning wEng ST Lei who, despite their rocky This Darling Life centres around relationship, follows her boyfriend director . a series of interviews where the to for his new job. This protagonists’ relationships with debut feature marks out Tsang their pets leads them to question Tsui Shan as a director to watch From the auteur to the avant-garde, Hong Kong cinema has a their lives, loves and decisions. and won Best Feature at the strong tradition of women working behind the camera. To celebrate this, The fi lm is punctuated by Chen’s South Film and Video own conversation with her brother Festival 2009. Visible Secrets: Hong Kong’s Women Filmmakers, presents a unique and exploration of their family Director introduction and season of fi lm premieres, events and special guests. history, the other ten segments post-screening Q&A with To coincide, season curators Sarah Perks and Andy Willis have visit a wide cross-section of Tsang Tsui Shan. society from a homeless man who guest edited the autumn edition of Film International magazine, focusing lives under a bypass with his dog Presented in association with on Hong Kong cinema and including an extended article on Visible to a woman who single-handedly the Confucius Institute at Secrets, available from the Bookshop. runs her own shelter with over The University of Manchester. 100 dogs. This is a Cornerhouse touring season, for details on UK tour Director introduction and Floating venues and dates visit: www.cornerhouse.org/visiblesecrets post-screening Q&A with Landscapes: Angie Chen. New Directors This strand showcases recent Closing Gala/ features by new and emerging Claustrophobia (PG) directors to keep watch of, revealing the breadth, variety Season curated by Sarah Perks, Tue 3 Nov 20:30 and vibrancy of work Programme & Engagement produced by young Hong Director at Cornerhouse Dir /2008/100 mins/ Kong women fi lmmakers. and Andy Willis, Reader in Cantonese wEng ST Film Studies at the University , Ekin Cheng, of Salford. Chucky Woo, The Floating An intriguing retrospective Landscape (12A) narrative strategy reveals much Mon 12 Oct about the relationship between 20:25 two ordinary offi ce workers Tom and Pearl (Hong Kong Dir Carol Lai/2003/96 mins/ superstars Cheng and Lam) and Cantonese wEng ST the colleagues they share a ride Karena Lam, Ekin Cheng, to work with. The directorial debut After the death of her lover a of screenwriter Ivy Ho (Comrades, young woman Mann (Lam) sets A Love Story, ). out to fi nd the landscape her artist boyfriend had painted from a Director introduction and childhood memory, with the aid of post-screening Q&A with Ivy Ho. the local postman Lit, played by rising mainland star Ye. The fi lm’s beauty was rewarded in a best cinematography award for Image credits: Arthur Wong at the Hong Kong Cover: Ming Ming. Film Awards. Opposite left: This Darling Life. Opposite right: Claustrophobia. High Noon (CTBA) Butterfl y (15) Ming Ming (15) Traces of a Dragon: Wed 21 Oct Sat 24 Oct Wed 28 Oct & His 13:50 17:55 17:55 Lost Family (CTBA) Dir Heiward Mak/2008/100 mins/ Dir Yan Yan Mak/2004/124 mins/ Dir /2007/105 mins/ Sat 17 Oct Cantonese wEng ST Cantonese wEng ST Mandarin & Cantonese wEng ST 20:40 Sham Ka-kei, Anjo Leung, , Yuan Tian, Eric Kot , , Venus Wong Flavia is a married, thirty Ming Ming is the debut feature Dir Mabel Cheung/2003/94 mins/ High Noon marks the feature fi lm something teacher who feels she from renowned commercial and Cantonese wEng ST debut of 24-year-old Heiward Mak has to accept her life as it is until a music video director Susie Au. Jackie Chan, Fang Shi-De, and is a remarkable achievement chance meeting with an attractive An energetic visual feast, the fi lm Chan Yu-Lan for such a young director. The fi lm young woman in a supermarket follows Ming Ming (played by top In the context of his mother’s focuses on the intertwining lives of revives her memories of her earlier mainland actress Xun) as she poor health, Jackie Chan’s father a group of Hong Kong teenagers relationship with Jin. Butterfl y was steals from gangster Brother decides to reveal the true story and their experiences of sex, selected for several international Cat on her mission to fi nd D behind his family history including violence and education. fi lm festivals and marked the (Hong Kong heart-throb Wu). lost siblings, violent Nationalism, arrival of a vital new voice on the opium smuggling and the fact Hong Kong cinema landscape. that Chan isn’t their real family Wonder Women (15) This name. Not just for Jackie Chan Thu 22 Oct Darling Life: fans (although this fi lm will convert 20:25 Anna & Anna (15) Documentaries you!), this is also a fascinating insight into modern Chinese Dir Barbara Wong/2007/108 mins/ Mon 26 Oct Exploring a wide range of history and family life. Cantonese wEng ST 18:00 documentaries made by women , Fiona Sit, Dir Aubrey Lam/2007/95 mins/ directors. See also This Darling Barbara Wong is an actor, writer The Decameron (15) Mandarin & Cantonese wEng ST Life in the Gala Screening section. and director with six feature fi lms Karena Lam, Lu Ye, Tender Huang Sat 31 Oct under her belt. To coincide with the Karena Lam plays Anna, a 20:00 10th anniversary of Hong Kong’s successful business woman Secondary School (PG) handover, Wonder Women follows who moves from to Thu 15 Oct Dir Yan Yan Mak/2009/117 mins/ Cantonese wEng ST Joy (Leung) through the major and meets someone 18:10 events of the decade including the who looks very much like her. An extremely engaging Asian fi nancial crisis and SARS. Heavily infl uenced by Kieslowski’s Dir Tammy Cheung/2003/85 mins/ documentary that unites two Hong Cantonese wEng ST Kong female artists – fi lm director Join us in the Bar afterwards for The Double Life of Véronique, Anna & Anna succeeds in fi nding Director Tammy Cheung, one of Yan Yan Mak and Canto-pop special Wonder Women cocktails Hong Kong’s longstanding and star . Together they only £3.75 each! its own voice and explores what might happen if we met another leading documentary fi lmmakers, are raising the profi le of mental version of ourselves on a different uses a ‘direct cinema’ approach, illness and the attitudes of society route through life. in this documentary which takes a towards it; interviewing over close look at the present condition 20 people including psychiatrists, of the troubled school system and singers, and artists who have the children, teachers and parents all fought with mental illness. who are all part of it. Director introduction and post-screening Q&A with Yan Yan Mak.

Image credits: This page: Wonder Women. Opposite page: Left: High Noon. Middle: Secondary School. Right: Traces of a Dragon. : July Rhapsody (CTBA) Night and Fog (CTBA) Snapshots: Où est Snapshots: Additional The 21st Wed 14 Oct Fri 23 Oct la sortie? (CTBA) Invisible City (CTBA) Events century films 14:20 20:20 Sat 31 Oct Sun 1 Nov of Ann Hui Dir Ann Hui/2002/103 mins/ Dir Ann Hui/2008/122 mins/ 14:00 Time TBC Talk/Visible Secrets Cantonese wEng ST Mandarin & Cantonese wEng ST Mon 5 Oct We are pleased to present a very A programme of three films by The second of two programmes Jackie Cheung, Karena Lam, , , 18:30 – 19:30 special focus on director Ann Visible Secrets directors: Heiward exploring the socio-cultural Jacqueline Law FREE, Booking required Hui, one of the most respected, Mak’s Lovers’ Lover is about the space of postcolonial Hong Kong An honest and upstanding teacher Opening this year’s prestigious him and her of a relationship, including Rita Hui Nga Shu’s well loved and internationally of Chinese literature (Cheung) Hong Kong International Film Season curators, Sarah Perks and renowned of all of Hong Kong’s Où est la sortie? by Tsang Tsui Invisible City. Anson Mak’s A Andy Willis, will introduce the fi lms slowly realises is falling for one Festival, Night and Fog is an Shan follows a Chinese woman’s Wishing Well Under the Not a Big women filmmakers. It is Hui’s 2001 of his students (Lam). A strong absorbing tale of a mainland from Visible Secrets and discuss film Visible Secret that gives this life in Paris and Yan Yan Mak’s Blue Sky explores her position as a the individual fi lmmakers involved. character piece including the Chinese woman’s experiences Scarlet Robe is about a daughter’s foreigner in LA whilst her Goodbye season its title and we are proud last screen role of Anita Mui, an in Hong Kong’s Tin Shui Wai, to showcase the contemporary ambition to follow her performer remembers the iconic Central extremely talented actress and or ‘City of Sadness’, housing mother into Cantonese opera. Star Ferry Pier in Hong Kong, Still One Hour Intro/Ann Hui works of this inspirational figure, who died of cancer in 2003, complex. Following reports of Sun 11 Oct having produced an astonishing Director introduction with (Poon Yick-sum) follows a women aged only 40. her death, a number of people living in Hong Kong through the 16:30 – 17:30 25 films over four decades. This is who had come into contact with Yan Yan Mak. a rare opportunity to gain a better Curator introduction from SARS epidemic and The Live £3.50 full/£3 concs Sarah Perks, Cornerhouse. her recollect events in her life and Times of Ho Chung Village FREE for Cornerhouse Members understanding of Hui’s unique when questioned by the police. filmmaking style. (Tsang Tsui Shan) is a journey or when you buy a ticket for any Ann Hui fi lm. The Way We Are (PG) of time, change and memories. Hong Kong Andy Willis, Reader in Film Studies The Postmodern Sun 11 Oct Snapshots: Curator introduction from 18:20 Teresa Kwong. at the University of Salford and Life of My Aunt (15) Shorts & co-curator of Visible Secrets, Sat 10 Oct Dir Ann Hui/2008/91 mins/ leads this introduction on to 16:00 Cantonese wEng ST Experimental one of Hong Kong’s most prolifi c Paw Hee-Ching, Leung Chun-lung Films Dir Ann Hui/2006/111 mins/ and acclaimed auteur fi lmmakers, This quietly understated film, shot Mandarin wEng ST Ann Hui. in HD, follows the life of mother Three programmes of exciting , Chow Yun-fat, and son - Mrs Cheung and Ka-0n acclaimed short films curated Event/ Visible Secrets – as they get on with their lives in by Teresa Kwong, director of the An old fashioned woman (Gaowa) Hong Kong’s ‘City of Sadness’, Hong Kong Independent Film in Conversation finds the world modernising Tin Shui Wai. The film won Best and Video Awards (IFVA) in Hong around her treasured Shanghai Sat 31 Oct Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Kong. Presented in association lifestyle. Featuring a star turn 11:00 – 13:00 Best Director and Best Screenplay with IFVA and the Hong Kong by Hong Kong megastar Chow FREE, Booking required at the 2009 Hong Kong Film Arts Centre. Yun-fat, the film won best actress Awards and is a companion piece Short presentations by leading and best screenplay at the 2006 to Night and Fog. Snapshots: These academics and fi lmmakers Taiwan Golden Horse awards. looking at the impact of women Shoes Weren’t Made on the Hong Kong Film Industry Visible Secret (CTBA) Goddess of Mercy (CTBA) for Walking (CTBA) post-handover, followed by an Mon 19 Oct Thu 29 Oct open discussion. Sat 10 Oct 20:40 18:00 18:00 Dir Ann Hui/2001/98 mins Dir Ann Hui/2003/110 mins/ The first of two programmes that , Qi Shu, Cantonese wEng ST deal with the cultural identity, Anthony Wong, Zhao Wei, history, family and space of This visually inventive combination Utilising a fascinating narrative postcolonial Hong Kong. These of traditional ghost story and formula that shifts between the Shoes Weren’t Made for Walking comedy proved something of a present and the past, Goddess is actually directed by Paul Lee surprise box-office hit for Ann Hui. of Mercy tells the story of a female but is a personal documentary Taiwanese actress Qi Shu plays police officer (Wei) involved with about the women in his family June, a woman whose left eye a handsome young drug smuggler and a wider look at the role of sees ghosts! (Tse). Walking the tightrope women in Chinese society. Anson between commercial and art Mak’s Invisible Bodies (And So cinema, Goddess of Mercy is The Cities) is an experimental a surprisingly complex film. 60-minute meditation on place across Macau, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Image credits: Curator introduction from Top: Où est la sortie? Bottom: Left: Postmodern Life Teresa Kwong. of My Aunt. Right: Night & Fog. Visible Secrets Calendar

Mon 5 Preview talk/Visible Secrets 18:30 Fri 9 Opening Gala/This Darling Life (12A) 20:30 Sat 10 The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (15) 16.00 Goddess of Mercy (CTBA) 18:00 Sun 11 One Hour Intro/Ann Hui 16:30 The Way We Are (PG) 18:20 Mon 12 The Floating Landscape (12A) 20:25 Wed 14 Intro/July Rhapsody (CTBA) 14:20 Thu 15 Secondary School (PG) 18:10 Sat 17 Traces of a Dragon (CTBA) 20:40 Mon 19 Visible Secret (CTBA) 20:40 Wed 21 High Noon (CTBA) 13:50 Thu 22 Wonder Women (15) 20:25 Fri 23 Night and Fog (CTBA) 20:20 Sat 24 Butterfly (15) 17:55 Mon 26 Anna & Anna (15) 18:00 Wed 28 Ming Ming (15) 17:55 Thu 29 Snapshots: These Shoes Weren’t Made for Walking (CTBA) 18:00 Fri 30 Lovers on the Road (15) 20:20 Sat 31 Event/Visible Secrets In Conversation 11:00 Snapshots: Où est la sortie? (CTBA) 14:00 The Decameron (15) 20:00 Sun 1 Snapshots: Invisible City (CTBA) TBC Tue 3 Closing Gala/Claustrophobia (PG) 20:30

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