London Chinese Film Festival 2005
5 – 11 February 2005
A selection of feature and documentary films plus seminar and talks by
visiting speakers. The programme focuses on “a range of documentaries
about contemporary China”. It includes examples from the exciting ‘New
Documentary Movement’, as well as outstanding work produced in the
USA ‘Morning Sun’ which casts a fresh eye on the experience of the Cultural
Revolution with historical footage never seen before.
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Screening Diary:
Session 1:
Saturday, 5th February in the Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS at 6.00 pm.
Title: Drafter (120 mins).
Session 2:
Monday, 7th February in the Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS at 6.00 pm.
Titles: The Sun in Winter (79 mins), followed by A Student’s Village (110
mins).
Session 3:
Tuesday, 8th February in the Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS at 7.00 pm.
Title: Cala My Dog (100 mins).
Session 4:
Wednesday, 9th February in the Brunei Lecture Theatre, SOAS at 6.30 pm.
Title: San Yuan Li (44 mins). Followed by a talk and question & answer
session led by Prof Lu Xinyu on Chinese New Documentary Movement (with
English simultaneous interpretation by Chris Berry).
Session 5:
Thursday, 10th February in the Brunei Lecture Theatre, SOAS at 6.00 pm.
Title: Morning Sun (120 mins).
Session 6:
Friday, 11th February in the Brunei Lecture Theatre, SOAS at 6.00 pm.
Meet the Filmmaker: Carma Hinton. Interview & Discussion conducted by Paul
Crook.
Ticket Price: £5. Please book seats in advance using the attached form
(also available on www.soas.ac.uk/centres/ccs). STRICTLY NO SALE OF TICKETS
AT THE DOOR.
Venue Address: School of Oriental & African Studies, Thornhaugh Street,
Russell Square, London. WC1H 0XG.
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Carma Hinton was born and raised in Beijing in l949, and lived there until
she was 21. She has a Ph.D in Art History from Harvard University and has
taught Chinese history, language & culture at Wellesley and MIT. All
interviews in Morning Sun were conducted by Carma in Mandarin.
Paul Crook: Senior Producer, BBC World Service. He grew up in China and
lived through the Cultural Revolution.
Professor Lu Xinyu teaches in the School of Journalism at Fudan University
in Shanghai. A prolific author on media topics, she is best known for her
ground-breaking recent book, ‘Documentary China’, on the New Documentary
Movement in the People's Republic.
Chris Berry: Chris is professor of Film and Television Studies at
Goldsmiths College (University of London). He is author of Postsocialist
Cinema in Post-Mao China: The Cultural Revolution after the Cultural
Revolution (New York: Routledge 2004) and a number of other significant
publications on Chinese Film.
BRIEF SYNPOSIS:
Drifters Dir: Wang Xiaoshuai 2003 (120 mins.)
While China is modernising at a rapid rate, adventurers continue to embark
on perilous journeys to the West. This movie is set on the seaboard of
Fujian province, where many illegal immigrants set off to the West Drifters
is not about this journey itself, but more about the consequences for
family bonds and the world of those who return.
The Sun in Winter (doc) Dir: Zhao Gang 2002 (80 mins.)
The film reflects the failed ballot box democracy at the grassroots level
in rural village. Nevertheless it shows how local politics, economy and
culture have been transformed by the introduction of democratic
institutions.
A Student’s Village (doc) Dir: Wei Xin 2002 (110 mins.)
A small ‘Student Village’ built by local people to allow their children to
attend school. This documentary shows the determination of the locals in
assuring a good education and future for the younger generation.
Cala, My Dog! Dir: Lu Xuechang 2003 (100 mins.)
The film is absorbing in its depiction of interpersonal and economic
pressures that beset an ordinary family in China. There is no melodrama,
only uncomfortable entanglement in imaginary hope.
San Yuan Li Dir. Ou Ning, Cao Fei 2003 (44 mins.)
Produced under commission from the 50th Venice Biennale. The directors
samples San Yuan Li Village as a case study of a typical village-amid-the-
city phenomenon in the process of the urbanization of Guangzhou in booming
Southern China.
Morning Sun Dir. Carma Hinton 2003 USA (120 mins.)
After Gate of Heavenly Peace shook the world, Carma Hinton gives the
definitive testimony of the cultural revolution. She and her co-directors
retrace those “blazing red years”. They provide fresh perspectives on the
political culture that informed violent passions of the movement with
hitherto unseen historical footage.
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