1St China Onscreen Biennial
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2012 1st China Onscreen Biennial LOS ANGELES 10.13 ~ 10.31 WASHINGTON, DC 10.26 ~ 11.11 Presented by CONTENTS Welcome 2 UCLA Confucius Institute in partnership with Features 4 Los Angeles 1st China Onscreen UCLA Film & Television Archive All Apologies Biennial Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Are We Really So Far from the Madhouse? Film at REDCAT Pomona College 2012 Beijing Flickers — Pop-Up Photography Exhibition and Film Seeding cross-cultural The Cremator dialogue through the The Ditch art of film Double Xposure Washington, DC Feng Shui Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution Confucius Institute at George Mason University Lacuna — Opening Night Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven 3D Confucius Institute Painted Skin: The Resurrection at Mason 乔治梅森大学 孔子学院 Sauna on Moon Three Sisters The 2012 inaugural COB has been made possible with Shorts 17 generous support from the following Program Sponsors Stephen Lesser The People’s Secretary UCLA Center for Chinese Studies Shanghai Strangers — Opening Night UCLA Center for Global Management (CGM) UCLA Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment and Sports (MEMES) Some Actions Which Haven’t Been Defined Yet in the Revolution Shanghai Jiao Tong University Chinatown Business Improvement District Mandarin Plaza Panel Discussion 18 Lois Lambert of the Lois Lambert Gallery Film As Culture | Culture in Film Queer China Onscreen 19 Our Story: 10 Years of Guerrilla Warfare of the Beijing Queer Film Festival and Corporate Sponsor Last Days China Film Archive 20 Animated, Golden and Restored The Red Detachment of Women The COB is grateful to the China Film Archive for its cooperation Fu Hongxing Director and President Rao Shuguan Deputy Director and Deputy President Liu Dong Director, International Cooperation Division Credits 23 Zhao Jing Program Manager, International Cooperation Division Calendar of Events 24 www.confucius.ucla.edu/cob 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of bilateral relations between the US and China, and we are delighted at the synchronicity, even if coincidental, this year of launching a new showcase of Mainland Chinese cinema for American audiences in Los Angeles and Washington, DC. We believe the China Onscreen Biennial (COB) is in scope and design the Welcome to first of its kind. The event is unprecedented as a bicoastal partnership the inaugural among eight distinguished non-profit American educational and cultural organizations to promote US-China dialogue through the art of film. China The first China Onscreen Biennial (COB) coincides with the Onscreen 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s visit to China, a pivotal The curation of the COB has also been unique, a truly collaborative effort moment in US-China relations that opened doors and fostered across institutions rather than the more centralized model of programming Biennial! communication between the two countries for the following by a standalone entity, whether a film festival or cinematheque. decades. The State of California possesses a remarkably rich history of relations with China, present even in the infrastructure My programming partners – Bérénice Reynaud at Film at REDCAT, Ellen that survives today that Chinese American immigrants were vital Harrington at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Shannon in helping create at the turn of the 20th century. The UCLA Kelley and Paul Malcolm at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Tom Vick Confucius Institute seeks to recognize and foster the historic at the Freer and Sacker Galleries, and Jonathan Hall at Pomona College connection between the United States and China through a wide – and I have taken our cues from realities on the ground in China, rather variety of programs and outlets, from jump-starting Chinese than hew to longstanding taxonomies of Chinese cinema that have focused language programs in Los Angeles K-12 schools, to supporting more narrowly on Chinese independents, documentaries or state-approved East-West integrative medical practices, to bringing together Los commercial films as discrete entities — an approach favored in the West Angeles and overseas Chinese opera artists. We believe that there since the 1980s. are many pathways to learning about China, and recognize the film medium, in particular, as an exceptional way for multinational We have tried to take into account the great flux and media convergence audiences to immerse themselves in stories that are not necessarily taking place on the Chinese film scene with richly diverse, genre-crossing their own. The COB is a refreshing, innovative way to engage programming. The result are COB selections encompassing short and Americans with what is currently happening in China through a feature-length animation, documentaries and narrative films, as well as variety of lenses, from artistic, perhaps esoteric, films to popular, works originated for different platforms – theatrical release, internet viewing crowd-driven blockbusters – all of which reflect the diversity and art installations. The selections not only look at the Chinese cinema inherent in the Chinese (and American) 21st-century experience. present, but also its past. Some of the best examples of contemporary Chinese filmmaking, archival rarities and film restorations will be on view UCLA is in a unique position to support the COB’s initiatives and during the COB, many as North American and US premieres. ideals. Not only is UCLA a comprehensive research university, but also one recognized for its world-class arts programs and The COB is an initiative of the UCLA Confucius Institute and its Executive resources that include an extensive film archive second only to Director Susan Pertel Jain, and much appreciation goes to Susan, Professor the US Library of Congress. UCLA’s identity as an urban campus Zhuang Lailai of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the COB Project Manager located in Los Angeles, an international crossroads of culture, art, Stefanie Adcock and Ma Xiaojie for seeing this project from idea to and commerce and home to the largest Chinese population in the realization. An Advisory Board of UCLA faculty and international film United States, exerts its influence on the way we work. This year professionals have also shared their considerable knowledge and expertise we proudly mark the Confucius Institute’s fifth year at UCLA with to shape this inaugural COB. the launching of the China Onscreen Biennial. In collaboration with our distinguished presenting partners we hope to continue every And beyond the US media drumbeat of China as simply one humongous two years this tradition of celebrating the deep-rooted connections economic growth machine, the COB offers a refreshing multiplicity of voices between the people of the United States and the People’s Republic – sometimes in synch, sometimes discordant, but always vital and individual. of China, while planting the seeds for honest exchange and But as no film cultural project is ever complete without an audience, we cooperation that will flourish for years to come. invite you to complete the COB. Susan Pertel Jain Cheng-Sim Lim Executive Director, UCLA Confucius Institute Chief Curator, China Onscreen Biennial LA Sunday, October 14, 7:00 pm UCLA FTV ARCHIVE LA Sunday, October 21, 4:00 pm UCLA FTV ARCHIVE US Premiere North American Premiere ARE WE REALLY SO FAR ALL APOLOGIES All Apologies is a subtle study of the subterranean way two couples are FROM THE MADHOUSE? tragically connected through the death of a child. Yonggui and his wife, 爱的替身 Yun Zhen, left the countryside years ago, and he’s now a hardworking 我们离疯人院有多远 construction foreman, an agent of the urban renewal policy that has been 2012 profoundly affecting the Chinese cityscape. Hotheaded Heman used to 2010 be Yonggui’s driver; now Heman and his wife, Qiaoyu, run a tiny grocery FEATURES FEATURES store. After the unthinkable happens, Yonggui is convinced that a life is Director Director/Cinematographer/ Emily Tang “owed” to him, and that he is entitled to take what he wants or needs. Editor Qiaoyu is no less convinced that it is her duty to “pay” for her husband’s Li Hongqi mistake and misfortune. Emily Tang’s mise en scène eschews melodrama, Producer Yang Jian, Chow and instead paints an impressionistic picture of the changing relationships Keung. Screenwriter Han between men and women in contemporary China, calling forth a Producer Alex Chung. Jie, Emily Tang, Dong wealth of details, gestures, off-screen gazes and intimate moments. Composer P.K. 14, Dear Fang. Cinematographer Eloise. Cast P.K. 14. Lai Yiu-fai. Production All Apologies was shot in and around the city of Guilin in Guangxi Designer William Kwok. Province, the atmosphere and landscapes of which are rendered with Editor Chow Keung, HDCAM, color, Mandarin with documentary-like precision. On art direction, Tang collaborated with Baek Seung-hoon. Sound English subtitles, 87 min. Hong Kong filmmaker William Kwok (author of the moody Darkness Dong Xu. Composer After the critical acclaim of his fiction featureWinter Bride, 2003), composing a palette of ochres, browns and greys, dusty Roger Lin. Cast Cheng Vacation (2010), filmmaker Li Hongqi shifted his focus to streets, dirt roads, modest domestic spaces and dimly lit interiors. Taishen, Yang Shuting, documentaries. Li hoped to shake up his methodology: “I Through their own expressive qualities as well as the structure of Liang Jing, Gao Jin. am too controlling... So for now I want to extract myself from the shots and the editing strategy, the decors are narratively as my way of thinking and do something that is the complete important as the ethical and affective dilemmas of the protagonists. opposite.” Are We Really So Far from the Madhouse?, Li’s HDCAM, color, first work since shifting course, flirts with letting go even as Li Mandarin with English – Bérénice Reynaud subtitles, 90 min. throws down the gauntlet of rigorous formal experimentation. The results are by turns mesmerizing and unsettling.