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Event
China Now, program 2: Experimental Short Films from China
China Now: Independent Visions
program 2: Experimental Short Films from China
NOTE: Cinematheque members receive discount admission. For details please see http://www.sfcinematheque.org/support/membership/
With the advent of DV technology, grassroots methods of independent filmmaking in China have given rise to innovative new films and spawned an active independent filmmaking culture. Distancing themselves from prevailing ideological currents, critiquing the embrace of global capitalism, and, through the frequent use of on-screen interview and oral history, giving voice to citizens and witnesses omitted from official national narratives of growth and prosperity, these films seldom receive approval by censors and therefore cannot be screened in commercial cinemas in China. Instead, they rely on informal networks of galleries, cafes, universities and festivals which support this active and vital independent artistic activity despite the ebb and flow of government pressure and intervention. In support of the work of independent filmmakers worldwide, San Francisco Cinematheque and Cinema on the Edge, in association with the Center for Asian American Media and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, is proud to present this series of programs of recent independent film from China. These programs highlight the work of Chinese independent filmmakers, producers and distribution networks who are dedicated to supporting formally and ideologically challenging work created outside the official Chinese film industry.
These films are vital for us to know about in the West, not just for their compelling contentthere are few more important stories to tell than China's transition to world political and cultural powerhousebut because the filmmakers are inventing new ways of mobilizing, adapting, and innovating film language under pressure of the incredibly rapid and fundamental changes Chinese society is undergoing. Ai Weiwei's intensely engaged hyper-journalistic camera (Ping'An Yueqing); Sniadecki, Huang and Xu's genre-defying performance/documentary art hybrid work (Yumen); and Chen Zhou and Zhi Jun's visually playful experimentalism (I Am Not Not Not Chen Zhou and Dismantling Clematis): all interrogate how cinema art can and should stand against the real, all stretch cinema art under the pressure of seemingly un-representable new Chinese realities, and all invent images and sounds that try to keep up with a present that is changing before our eyes, one that is shaping our own future at the same time. (Shelly Kraicer, co-organizer of China Now: Independent Visions & Steve Polta, San Francisco Cinematheque)
In support of these heroic grassroots film creators, Cinematheque is thrilled to present a concentrated one-day, three-program series celebrating this important and innovative cinema.
5:30pm: Program 2: Experimental Short Films from China
Poet and Singer (Jingangjing) (2012) by Bi Gan: A visually splendid poem that provocatively but elegantly juxtaposes a poet, a singer, a river, a pair of murderers and the Diamond Sutra.
I Am Not Not Not Chen Zhou (2013) by Chen Zhou: The color yellow, as well as artist Chen Zhou and his alter ego(s), star in this droll, playfully conceptual tour de force.
Dismantling Clematis #16 (2014) by Zhi Jun: After a fire, scarred bonsai trees are meticulously freed of their supporting wires by medical professionals.
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LocationThe Victoria Theater (View)
2961 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
United States
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