2016 COB Release Genb8.Pages

2016 COB SCHEDULE

Los Angeles | UCLA Film & Television Archive

THEATER KEY Wilder Billy Wilder Theater, courtyard level of the UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood Bridges James Bridges Theater, 1409 Melnitz Hall on the UCLA campus YRL Young Research Library on the UCLA campus Garden UCLA Sculpture Garden on the UCLA campus

TICKETS $10 online; $9 general; $8 non-UCLA students, seniors, UCLA Alumni Association members (ID required) if purchased at the box office only. Free admission for UCLA students (current ID required); free tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis at the box office until 15 minutes before showtime, or the rush line afterwards. Online tickets available at www.cinema.ucla.edu/calendar.

PARKING Wilder – Museum parking lot; enter from Westwood Blvd., just north of Wilshire. $6 flat rate after 6:00 pm weekdays and all day on weekends. Cash only. Bridges/YRL/Garden – UCLA Parking Structure 3; enter from Hilgard Ave. just south of Sunset Blvd. $12/ day or pay-by-space. INFORMATION | cinema.ucla.edu

OPENING NIGHT

Friday, October 14 • 7:30 PM @ Wilder West Coast Premiere THARLO र၎ China, 2015 Director/Screenwriter: Pema Tseden | DCP | Color | In Tibetan with English subtitles | 123 min. Cast: Shide Nyima, Yangshik Tso. 1 Tibetan sheep-herder Tharlo journeys from his remote village to get a photo ID in the nearest town of Qinghai province where he meets a city woman whose romantic intentions may not be what they first seem. One of the most prominent Tibetan filmmakers working today, Pema Tseden tells this age-old tale, richly capturing contrasts of geography and tone, as a naive romance turns into something darker. Popular Tibetan comedian Shide Nyima brings a bittersweet edge to the title role.

Preceded by World Premiere ! China, 2016 Director: Gu Changwei | MOV | color | approx. 3 min. Gu plays visual puns with the exclamation point warning internet users in China of blocked content. “!” repetitively cycles into “i” and back again.

World Premiere N39º54' 12.56" E116º23' 14.20" China, 2015 Director/Cinematographer: Gu Changwei | MOV | b&w | 16 min. In recent years, award-winning director (Peacock, 2005) and cinematographer (Farewell My Concubine, 1993) Gu Changwei has turned to art photography and video installation. In this transfixing iPhone-shot video from his “money” series, the Great Hall of the People stands as immovable an edifice in Tiananmen Square as it does etched on the Chinese 100 RMB banknote – a permanent lodestar while human and vehicular traffic ebb and flow in super slo-mo before it. An earlier version of the video was presented as an installation at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.

In person: Director Gu Changwei, in conversation with art curator John Kong

Co-presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Saturday, October 15 • 7:30 PM @ Wilder Los Angeles Premiere TRIVISA ໅य़೗ᷚ Hong Kong/China, 2016 Directors: Jevons Au, Frank Hui, Vicky Wong | DCP | Color | In Cantonese, Mandarin and Thai with English subtitles | 96 min. Screenwriters: Loong Man Hoong, Thomas Ng, Mak Tin Shu | Cast: Lam Ka Tung, Richie Jen, Jordan Chan.

A chance encounter between three gangsters plying the border between Hong Kong and China just before the 1997 handover sets the stage for this intricate tale filmed by three young directors mentored by veteran auteur Johnnie To. Trivisa interweaves plans gone awry, missed opportunities and dead ends, reimagining not just the end of an era but the explosive beginnings of 21st-century Hong Kong.

Monday, October 17 • 7:30 PM @ Wilder West Coast Premiere BEHEMOTH ṹْنఓ China, 2015 Director: Zhao Liang | DCP | Color | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 94 min.

Independent documentarian Zhao Liang presents a stunning vision of the natural and human disaster unfolding across China as strip mines and iron works transform a landscape and a people into a living version of Dante’s Hell. Indeed, Zhao directly references the Divine Comedy in the film’s poetic structure and its mythological meditation on the environmental devastation it captures.

2 In person: Zhao Liang

Wednesday, October 19 • 7:30 PM @ Bridges DUNHUANG PROJECTED West Coast Restoration Premiere STAGE SISTERS ᛩݣথট China, 1964 Director: Xie Jin | DCP | color | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 112 min. | Restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata for the Shanghai International Film Festival Screenwriters: Lin Gu, Xu Jin, Xie Jin | Cast: Xie Fang, Cao Yindi, Deng Nan.

In this lush backstage drama set in the decades leading up to 1949, a pair of Chinese opera actresses sing their way from the countryside to the city and back again. Caught up in Cultural Revolution power struggles, veteran director Xie Jin’s portrait of female solidarity and awakening political consciousness was banned almost immediately but revived in the 1980s as a masterpiece of Chinese filmmaking, and is now newly released in this magnificent digital restoration.

Critically acclaimed director Jia Zhangke and his longtime muse Zhao Tao craft a drily absurdist tale of three laid-off coal factory workers retraining to be performers at a new cultural theme park. Director Jia recently joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Co-presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Sunday, October 23 • 9:00 AM @ Garden/Bridges DUNHUANG PROJECTED North American Premiere ATA ᆙᥠ China, 2014 Director/Screenwriter: Chakme Rinpoche | DCP | B&W | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 94 min. Cast: Wang Ning, Jiao Gang, Meng Tianyu.

Tianyu is a sightless boy whose mother believes his only chance for a future is to become a champion disabled Ping Pong player. Tianyu has other ideas – envisioning a much wider world than his mother understands. When he goes missing, she is forced to see things as he does in this beautiful, spiritually suffused debut feature from Tibetan writer-director Chakme Rinpoche.

West Coast Premiere JOURNEY TO THE WEST ᥜ჋ France/Taiwan, 2014 Director: Tsai Ming-liang | Blu-ray | Color | 56 min. Cast: Lee Kang-sheng, Denis Lavant.

3 Malaysian-Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang reinterprets the spiritual allegory of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West as cinematic performance art. With mesmerizing slowness, a Buddhist monk (played by Tsai’s alter ego Lee Kang-sheng) inches forward through the streets of Marseille. Along the way Tsai’s camera reveals a delicate interplay of concentration, urbanism and everyday life.

In person: Ata director Chakme Rinpoche, in conversation with theater director and UCLA Distinguished Professor of World Arts & Cultures/Dance, Peter Sellars

Please note: Chakme Rinpoche will lead a group meditation open to audience members from 9:00-9:25 am in the UCLA Sculpture Garden, adjacent to the James Bridges Theater where Ata will screen at 9:45 am. Chai tea will be served after the meditation.

Sunday, October 23 • 7:00 PM @ Wilder West Coast Premiere A SIMPLE GOODBYE ڦޞ China, 2015 Director/Screenwriter: Degena Yun | DCP | Color | In Mandarin and Mongolian with English subtitles | 97 min. Cast: Tu Men, Ai Liya, Degena Yun

Writer-director Degena Yun also stars in this understated semi-autobiographical story of a daughter and father equally adrift at opposite ends of their lives. A college dropout, she withdraws into virtual relationships while he, diagnosed with cancer, recedes into memories of his career as a leading Mongolian filmmaker. Their separate but parallel lives cross and clash building to a final recognition.

In person: Degena Yun (via live video)

Friday, October 28 • 7:30 PM @ Wilder North American Premiere RIVER မ China, 2015 Director/Screenwriter: Sonthar Gyal | DCP | Color | In Tibetan with English subtitles | 94 min. Cast: Yangchan Lhamu, Regzin Drolma, Guru Tsedan.

A young girl, her father and his father each long for stronger relationships with the other but must fight the weight of histories, personal and national, to rebuild their bonds. Tibetan writer-director Sonthar Gyal (The Sun-Beaten Path) makes breathtaking use of the Tibetan plains and mountains as an epic backdrop to this intimate family drama.

Saturday, October 29 • 7:30 PM @ Wilder US Premiere TA’ANG ஛෼ Hong Kong/France, 2016 Director: Wang Bing | DCP | Color | In Burmese and Mandarin with English subtitles | 147 min.

The latest work from groundbreaking Chinese documentarian Wang Bing (and new member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) takes us to a remote, lean-to refugee camp on the Sino- Myanmar border, where members of Myanmar’s Ta’ang ethnic minority have fled to escape renewed fighting in that country’s decades-long civil war. Wang immerses us in the ebb and flow of the camp, the search for family, necessities, and humanity redolent in the smallest of gestures.

4 Preceded by North American Premiere TRACES ᭳࣎ China, 2014 Director: Wang Bing | HD video | Color | 29 min.

A perambulation of memory in Gobi Desert earth and bones of the former Jiabiangou labor camp where more than a thousand men starved to death in the anti-rightist campaign of the late 1950s. Wang Bing shot the footage while developing his 2010 feature The Ditch.

Co-presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Sunday, October 30 • 7:00 PM @ Wilder West Coast Premiere THE ROAD य़᪠๖ॠ China/Denmark, 2015 Director: Zhang Zanbo | DCP | color | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 95 min.

The absurd heights of bureaucratic indifference and official corruption captured by director Zhang Zanbo’s camera might lead one to think The Road is a work of fiction. It’s not. It is instead a jaw-dropping documentary about the construction of the Xu-Huai Highway, a much touted infrastructure project in Mao’s home province meant to bolster China’s domestic economy against the effects of the 2008 financial crisis that left lives destroyed and communities ruined.

Monday, October 31 • 7:30 PM @ Wilder DUNHUANG PROJECTED Los Angeles Premiere • Halloween THE MONKEY KING 2 ᥜ჋ᦕԏਃఉᑮӣ಑ጮṋᔜ China/Hong Kong, 2016 Director: Soi Cheang | DCP | Color | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 119 min. Screenwriters: Ran Ping, Ran Jianan, Elvis Man, Yin Yiyi | Cast: Aaron Kwok, Gong Li, Feng Shaofeng.

The Journey to the West gets the full blockbuster treatment in this deliriously spirited retelling starring Aaron Kwok as the titular mythological anti-hero pressed into service by the Goddess of Mercy to protect the monk Xuanzang (Feng Shaofeng) on his mission to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India. Gong Li has a devilish time as the monk’s evil nemesis, the White Bone Demon.

Please note: This program will begin with a 30-minute group meditation session.

Friday, November 4 • 2:00 PM @ YRL Room 11360 US Premiere • Free admission! YELLOWING ԤӮ॓஫ China, Hong Kong, 2016 Director: Chan Tze-woon | DVD | Color | In Cantonese with English subtitles | 128 min.

In 2014 tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the streets in the Umbrella Movement. While the protests included a wide range of people, among the most famous were the students who occupied major roadways for eleven weeks. Filmmaker Chan Tze-woon was both participant and witness, creating a deeply personal document of student protesters at street level.

5 Preceded by North American Premiere A SUNNY DAY (to be confirmed) ෭·ษك܈Ԝ์ԫ Hong Kong/Netherlands, 2016

Director: Ying Liang | HD video | Color | In Cantonese with English subtitles | 25 min. A daughter drops in to see her aged father on her way to the Umbrella protests. From this simple premise director Ying Liang spins a poignant story of generational shifts, asking: Where do we live, and what is citizenship?

Please note: This program will include introductory remarks and a post-screening discussion with UCLA professors Robert Chi, CK Lee and Yan Yunxiang.

Sponsored by the UCLA Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library

A Chinese loan official journeys with a Tibetan woman to her remote village where he assumes the civil position once held by his disgraced father who disappeared years before. Tensions mount immediately between the Chinese outsider and the tight-knit Tibetan community, stoked by long-standing resentments as well as the official’s simmering desire. De Lan garnered the top prize at the 2016 Shanghai International Film Festival.

Wednesday, November 9 • 7:30 PM @ Bridges DUNHUANG PROJECTED Los Angeles Premiere SAVING MES AYNAK USA, 2015 Director: Brent Huffman | DCP | Color | 60 min.

Dating back 5,000 years, Mes Aynak in present-day Afghanistan is a perfect example of the intersections of commerce and culture on the Silk Road. This ancient complex of temples, markets, and copper works is now the subject of contention among governments, archaeologists, and the mining industry. But how much of it can be saved before time runs out?

Preceded by Rare Screening! A DEER OF NINE COLORS Ԝᜋỿ China, 1981 Director: Qian Jiajun, Dai Tielang | DCP | Color | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 30 min.

This beloved Chinese animation from the famed Shanghai Animation Film Studio illustrates a famous Buddhist Jataka story depicted in the cave murals at Dunhuang.

In person: Brent Huffman (via live video)

Please note: This program will begin with a 30-minute group meditation session.

6 Los Angeles | Film at REDCAT

THEATER REDCAT, Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex, 631 West 2nd St. in DTLA.

TICKETS $11 general; $8 REDCAT members, non-CalArts students; $6 CalArts students, faculty and staff. Online tickets available at www.redcat.org.

PARKING Walt Disney Concert Hall parking garage; enter from 2nd St. and proceed to level P3 for direct access to REDCAT - $9 after 4:30 pm weekdays / $5 after 8:00 pm. $9 flat rate on weekends.

INFORMATION | www.redcat.org, 213.237.2800

Monday, November 7 • 8:30 PM @ REDCAT Los Angeles Premiere THE FINAL MASTER ૵ᆿ China, 2015 Director/Screenwriter: Xu Haofeng | HD video | Color | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 109 min. Cast: Liao Fan, Song Jia, Jiang Wenli, Chin Shih-chieh, Huang Jue.

For his third film, Xu Haofeng – famous for his contributions to the screenplay of Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster – explores another situation of cultural hybridity, by (re)locating a martial arts master (sifu) in 1930s colonial Tianjin. Xu’s sarcastic, minimalist and elegant approach to cinema has been described as what martial arts movies would look like if directed by Straub-Huillet – or David Mamet. With a gift for sassy dialogue, Xu surrounds his protagonist with an appealing retinue of friends and foes, from a bitchy femme to a female sifu wearing Western suits.

Preceded by DUNHUANG PROJECTED Rare Screening! NIGHTFALL ON SHANGHAI Tombée de nuit sur Shanghai France, 2007 Director: Chantal Akerman | Digibeta | Color |15 min.

A rare Chantal Akerman short that captures the changing light as dusk creeps over the metropolis, its immemorial waters rippling gently under neon and gaudy signs, while a female voice sings Nights in White Satin.

Special thanks to Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

7 New York | Asia Society

THEATER Asia Society, 725 Park Ave. at East 70th St.

METRO 68th St. – Hunter College

TICKETS $8 Asia Society members, $10 students/seniors, $12 general. Available at tickets.asiasociety.org, (212) 517-2742.

INFORMATION | asiasociety.org/new-york, (212) 288-6400

Thursday, November 3 • 6:30 pm @ Asia Society East Coast Premiere A SIMPLE GOODBYE ڦޞ China, 2015 Director/Screenwriter: Degena Yun | DCP | Color | In Mandarin and Mongolian with English subtitles | 97 min. Cast: Tu Men, Ai Liya, Degena Yun

In person: Degena Yun (via live video)

Friday, November 4 • 6:30 pm @ Asia Society New York Premiere TRIVISA ໅य़೗ᷚ Hong Kong/China, 2016 Directors: Jevons Au, Frank Hui, Vicky Wong | DCP | Color | In Cantonese, Mandarin and Thai with English subtitles | 96 min. Screenwriters: Loong Man Hoong, Thomas Ng, Mak Tin Shu | Cast: Lam Ka Tung, Richie Jen, Jordan Chan

Saturday, November 5 • 2:00 pm @ Asia Society North American Premiere RIVER မ China, 2015 Director/Screenwriter: Sonthar Gyal | DCP | Color | In Tibetan with English subtitles | 94 min. 8 Cast: Yangchan Lhamu, Regzin Drolma, Guru Tsedan.

A young girl, her father and his father each long for stronger relationships with the other but must fight the weight of histories, personal and national, to rebuild their bonds. Tibetan writer-Directorector Sonthar Gyal (The Sun-Beaten Path) makes breathtaking use of the Tibetan plains and mountains as an epic backdrop to this intimate family drama.

Saturday, November 5 • 6:30 pm @ Asia Society DUNHUANG PROJECTED New York Restoration Premiere STAGE SISTERS ᛩݣথট China, 1964 Director: Xie Jin | DCP | color | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 112 min. | Restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata for the Shanghai International Film Festival Screenwriters: Lin Gu, Xu Jin, Xie Jin | Cast: Xie Fang, Cao Yindi, Deng Nan.

Tuesday, November 29 • Time TBA @ Asia Society DUNHUANG PROJECTED North American Premiere ATA ᆙᥠ China, 2014 Director/Screenwriter: Chakme Rinpoche | DCP | B&W | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 94 min. Cast: Wang Ning, Jiao Gang, Meng Tianyu.

Thursday, December 1 • 6:30 pm @ Asia Society New York Premiere KNIFE IN THE CLEAR WATER ৼڏႴ࿜᯾ጱ China, 2016 Director: Wang Xuebo | DCP | color | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 93 min.

In the far mountains of Ningxia province, Muslim elder Ma Zishan and his son mourn his deceased wife. The son wants to sacrifice the family’s only bull in memory of the mother. Zishan’s sorrow and his love for the old animal make him wonder. Even prayers and the Imam don’t seem to erase his doubts… until one morning the bull stops eating and drinking. Has it seen the knife in the clear water? This lyrical first feature is the latest from the producing team of last year’s brash new Chinese indie and festival fave Kaili Blues.

9 Washington, DC | National Gallery of Art

THEATER East Building Auditorium, 4th St. entrance at intersection of Constitution Ave. NW & 4th St. NW.

METRO Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter Station

TICKETS Free admission. Seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Auditorium opens approximately 30 minutes before each show.

INFORMATION | www.nga.gov, [email protected], (202) 842-6799

Dunhuang Projected screenings in Washington DC are presented by the National Gallery of Art and the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution.

November 12 • 1:00 pm @ East Building Auditorium DUNHUANG PROJECTED DC Restoration Premiere THE CAVE OF THE SILKEN WEB ፏӴ၏ China, 1927 Director: Dan Duyu | DCP | silent with English subtitles of Chinese and Norwegian intertitles | 60 min.

One of only a few surviving silent films from China’s cinematic Golden Age of the 1920s and 1930s, The Cave of the Silken Web was the earliest film adaptation of the famous Chinese novel Journey to the West. Restored by the National Library of Norway, where an incomplete nitrate print was discovered in 2011, this supernatural martial arts tale dramatizes one of the novel’s episodes in which the naive monk Xuanzang and his three disciples Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy are besieged by spider demons disguised as beautiful maidens. Chinese silent star (and Dan’s wife) Yin Mingzhu brings a beguiling modernity as the spider queen.

Piano accompaniment by Andrew Simpson

Saturday, November 26 • 1:30 pm @ East Building Auditorium DUNHUANG PROJECTED DC Restoration Premiere STAGE SISTERS ᛩݣথট China, 1964 Director: Xie Jin | DCP | color | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 112 min. | Restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata for the Shanghai International Film Festival Screenwriters: Lin Gu, Xu Jin, Xie Jin | Cast: Xie Fang, Cao Yindi, Deng Nan.

10 Saturday, November 26 • 4:00 pm @ East Building Auditorium DUNHUANG PROJECTED DC Premiere BEHEMOTH ṹْنఓ China, 2015 Director: Zhao Liang | DCP | Color | In Mandarin with English subtitles | 94 min.

Sunday, November 27 • 4:30 pm @ East Building Auditorium DUNHUANG PROJECTED DC Premiere SAVING MES AYNAK USA, 2015 Director: Brent Huffman | DCP | Color | 60 min.

11 PRESS KITS Includes photos and list of prestigious prizes garnered by the films and filmmakers.

A Deer of Nine Colors https://ucla.box.com/s/6wvs3zwxzpjlsp64x9v6na0dxvva6fwz Password: 2016ncd

A Simple Goodbye https://ucla.box.com/s/1gg0edqpzi6njoncxovr16430n7c4d8q Password: 2016asg

Ata https://ucla.box.com/s/k9h29r0szd8c0m5qkppatnj6uf9vf06r Password: 2016cobata

Behemoth https://ucla.box.com/s/tpfwenfsyl7wqszatlcod5umpn89ip04 Password: 2016cobb

Crosscurrent https://ucla.box.com/s/lwztw28c5cvy2al8a7l9t8dflcex7io8 Password: 2016cobc

The Final Master https://ucla.box.com/s/1ex26qx5qj2s4vo2dr236ys5q3m3ojh7 Password: 2016cobfm

Gu Changwei’s Short Video Works https://ucla.box.com/s/hxsdgl1hosio88rzqhiwrv3hxnzbqiyk Password: 2016cobgu

The Hedonists https://ucla.box.com/s/xpdx4669mlohie7u5cul0zprk8y96fbw Password: 2016cobth

Journey to the West https://ucla.box.com/s/8r3wvx673bxm8214mn1i6aaggjtrb9kj Password: 2016jw

The Monkey King 2 https://ucla.box.com/s/ratgricfv8q24zbya4b37nbexclfvqs5 Password: 2016cobtmk

Nightfall on Shanghai https://ucla.box.com/s/r2zzwud0npgpk23f9r4im85vafyl75z2 Password: 2016cobnos

River https://ucla.box.com/s/7b9ou5cv3wiq7vnogphrahty5p98qsge Password: 2016cobr

The Road https://ucla.box.com/s/4bdvaboq8x499bjhsj5wxcxyoi88a3bw Password: 2016cobtr

Saving Mes Aynak https://ucla.box.com/s/xggurzkdjmein5tzkmrmr8v0894d51us Password: 2016sma 12 Stage Sisters https://ucla.box.com/s/5utueyfywhxp50heonmkxsvrpzafu00k Password: 2016cobss

Ta'ang https://ucla.box.com/s/cc4656lak3933rrmah65e8lzutvtvxn1 Password: 2016cobta

Tharlo https://ucla.box.com/s/3idolclhjr2vkls6lvirhhd1o2geewte Password: 2016cobt

Traces https://ucla.box.com/s/aqegjh73hkl282qsyrrgcwck9a6k4bje Password: 2016cobtra

Trivisa https://ucla.box.com/s/5cs03w9muyfxia3xkcol27cel8kjl6ry Password: 2016cobtri

Yellowing https://ucla.box.com/s/edn6y7qtj2jchyaz0ohpp85qg6oz624v Password: 2016coby

CHINA ONSCREEN BIENNIAL - COB (chinaonscreen.org) is a non-profit initiative of the UCLA Confucius Institute - a unique cross-continental collaboration among American cultural and educational institutions to promote US-China dialogue through the art of film.

COB is proud to have the participation of the 2016 Presenting Partners: Los Angeles: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, AFI FEST presented by Audi, Pomona College-Pacific Basin Institute, REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theatre), UCLA Film & Television Archive; New York: Asia Society; Washington DC: Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art.

The 2016 COB is made possible by: Founding Sponsor: UCLA Confucius Institute

For a complete schedule of the 2016 COB in Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC, please visit: chinaonscreen.org.

MEDIA CONTACT Eleonora Granata-Jenkinson [email protected]