Trailer-New Generation contemporary Chinese independent film from Kiki Yu on Vimeo.

Cube Magic and Cinéphilia West are delighted to host an event spread across four evenings, New Generation: Contemporary Independent Chinese Film. It is a showcase of some of the latest and most innovative and exciting films made by young generation Chinese filmmakers. In a series of four screenings: documentaries, animations, fictions and experimental videos, this event presents a new vision of contemporary China, under the themes of ‘Absurdity and Reality’, ‘Lost in ‘Now? – dream, memory and fantasy’, ‘Merging Fiction and Documentary?’, and ‘Searching for Identity ‘.

Most of the young film talents were born and grew up in post-socialist China, and they take a more personal and even first-person approach representing Chinese social reality. Among the showcased films, many are highlights from the Chongqing Independent Film and Video Festival, China (CIFVF). 


The event will be presented by Independent Filmmaker and Programmer, CDR member, Tianqi Yu, director of Cube Magic, with the support from CIFVF and CDR. The London based Cube Magic(cubemagic.org) curates and programmes contemporary Chinese independent film and video works. Promoting international collaborations and exchange between China and abroad, Cube Magic represents emerging innovative young generation film/video makers, mostly born in post-socialist China.

When: From Thursday 27th to 30th May 2010 at 7:00pm


Where: Cinéphilia West, 171 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2RS


Cost: £5 on the door / Free to Cinéphilia Club members


For further information about the event,
please contact Yoram Allon ( yoram@cinephilia.co.uk) / 020 7792 4433
and Caroline Jones ( caroline@cinephilia.co.uk)/ Cubemagic.org

Program

New Generation: Contemporary Independent Chinese Film

7 – 10pm, 27th MAY – Focus on Documentary: ‘Absurdity and Reality ’

Living in contemporary China means a life-long experience of dramatic transformations without much option of escape. This absurd reality makes everyone constantly re-position the ‘self’. Experiencing this constant shifting of identity, young documentary filmmakers also explore the ongoing challenges of documentary filmmaking – of how to position themselves as filmmakers, and their relations with others and society at large.
In The 7th Medical Ward, the filmmaker lives closely with homeless people in a developed South Eastern coastal city. The homeless people are regarded as being ‘mentally disabled’ by society and the filmmaker sympathises with their plight and feelings at being forsaken.

In Three Animals, the filmmaker, being an orphan himself, documents fragments of lives of his younger orphan ‘brothers’.  We may question his lack of moral responsibility by filming young boys robbing and fighting, but isn’t he also a victim of this absurd reality?

In Scrape, the filmmaker exposes her position more explicitly; in fact the film explores how difficult it is for her to elicit responses from urban management officers as well as the merchants who play ‘hide-and-seek’ with them.

Lastly, Settled is a dialogue between the 21-year-old film maker and an 83-year-old man; with the elder man’s story mirroring the transformation of China throughout the twentieth century, can the young film maker who was born in a new China, have a clear view the country’s present and future?

1. The 7th Medical Ward (Dir. ZHANG Tianhui, 44 mins, 2007)
2. Three Animals (Dir. XUE Jianqiang, 17 mins, 2008)
3. Scrape (Dir. ZHU Yi, 30 mins, 2008)
4. Settled (Dir. SHAN Zuolong, 30 mins, 2009)

Introduction and Q&A with Professor Chris Berry
Professor of Film and Television Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London

7 – 10pm, 28th May – Focus on Animation: ‘Lost in “Now” – Dream, Memory and Fantasy’

The young animation director Lei Lei shares his daydream of childhood with us inMagic Cube & Pingpong Color and Pear or Alien. He also reminds us how we can easily get lost in our greedy desires in The Face.

Ms. Red, Li Xianji’s Adventures and The Chinese Labour are animated documentaries. While Ms. Red illustrates the experience of the elder generation growing up during the Cultural Revolution, Li Xianji’s Adventures explicitly presents the fragmented ’self’ growing up in the commoditised ‘gaming’ China. The Chinese Labour, on the other hand, tells stories of the struggling subaltern class. This showcase also includes three most recent and best animations from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

All together, these animations invite us to think: to what extend can the truth be told through animated memory and dreams?

1. Magic Cube & Pingpong Color (Dir. Lei lei, 4 mins, 2009)
2. Pear or Alien (Dir. Lei Lei, 4 mins, 2008)
3. The Face (Dir. Lei Lei, 9 mins, 2007)
4. Black Pig White Pig (ZHANG Gong, 5 mins, 2005)
5. The Chinese Labour (Dir. CONG Longfei, 7 mins, 2008)
6. Ms. Red (Dir. ZHANG Gong, 17 mins, 2009)
7. Li Xianji’s Adventures (Dir. Youxiu de Feixingyuan, 22 mins, 2009)
8. Give & Take (Dir. HE Zhiping, 5 mins, 2008)
9. The Soliloquist (Dir. YU Weicheng, 6 mins, 2009)
10. The little Sun (Dir. Qiu Liwei, 22 mins, 2007)

7 – 10pm, 29th May – Focus on Narrative Short Films: ‘Bridging Fiction and Documentary’

This showcase of short fictions demonstrates more personal styles of film making. The award-winning Condolences re-enacts one true story in a single long take of 19 minutes, which challenges the aesthetics of so-called ‘fly-on-the-way’ documentary. The other films on show challenge the stereotypical Social-Realism of Chinese cinema by illustrating the more complex truth of living in China in a more self-reflective and expressive way. In addition, queer relationships also become a focus in ‘New Generation’ cinema, which can be found in And I Knewand Spring of Yangchun.

1. Condolences (Dir. YING Liang, 19 mins, 2009)
2. The Mirror Minded (Dir. MA Xiang, 30 mins, 2007)
3. And I Knew (Dir. HUANG KAI, 15 mins, 2004)
4. Spring of Yangchun (Dir. YANG Pingdao, 17 mins, 2006)
5. Closed Eyed; Wake Up (Dir. WONG Weihai, 18 mins, 2009)
6. F.I.L.L. K.I.S.H (Dir. LIN Zhele, 10 mins, 2005)

7 – 10pm, 30th May – focus on Experimental Film: ‘Searching for Identity’

While the short documentaries demonstrate the difficulty of positioning the ’self’ in response to the dramatic transformations under way in the country, the selected experimental films directly question the ’self’ in contemporary China on the explicit level of identity: ‘who are we?’

1. Me (Dir, CHEN Xuegang, 1 min 34 secs, 2008)
2. Tremble (Dir. CHEN Xuegang, 2 mins 20 secs, 2007)
3. Export (Dir. ZHOU Fei, 3 mins, 2009)
4. Untitled-3 (Dir. LI Ning, 15 mins, 2008
5. Yellow Spirit (Dir. Wang Wenyang, 7 mins, 2009)
6. Unfinished-2 (Dir. LI Ning, 16 mins, 2008)
7. National Anthem (Dir. LI Wake, 10 mins, 2009)

Q&A with Dr. Katie Hill
Senior Lecturer in contemporary Chinese Art and Visual Culture, University of Westminster