The High Life (dir. Zhao Dayong) by Isabella Tianzi Cai RealTime Arts, Australia’s critical guide to contemporary international arts, recently reviewed several films from the 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival – several by directors with films distributed by dGenerate. In the Asian Digital Competition section of HKIFF, the awards went to Zhao Dayong’s The High Life and Yang Heng’s Sun Spots. RealTime’s Mike Walsh comments on the former, “Characters enter and then leav

Director Ai Xiaoming The Epoch Times has an informative article by Liang Zhen on Chinese independent documentaries, published on the heels of two film festivals that spotlighted these films: the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, the latter of which was programmed by Shelly Kraicer. The article describes several recent important films from the independent documentary movement in China: Petition by Zhao Lia

By Isabella Tianzi Cai Karamay (dir. Xu Xin) Known as the “12/8/94 Incident,” a devastating fire broke out in the Karamay Friendship Theater in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, killing 323 people, 288 of whom were schoolchildren. Chinese director Xu Xin’s Karamay, which premiered at this year’s 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival, brings back these nearly erased memories of the past. With little knowledge of the incident at the time it happened, Xu Xin expected the fi

Danwei.org interviews Zhao Dayong, Chinese independent filmmaker and director of Street Life and Ghost Town (both distributed by dGenerate). Zhao’s latest feature film The High Life premiered at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival. In this interview Zhao introduces these films, as well as his documentary My Father’s House and experimental feature Rough Poetry. More information about Zhao and his work is available on his website Lanternfilms. Video also on Tudou.

Awards ceremony at Hong Kong International Film Festival (photo courtesy Lantern Films) The Hong Kong International Film Festival gave out its awards Tuesday night, and to our delight, four of the nine awards were given to filmmakers repped by dGenerate. Yang Heng (director of Betelnut) took home the Golden Digital Award in the Asian Digital Competition for his new film Sun Spots, while Zhao Liang (Crime and Punishment) won the Humanitarian Award for his stunning documentary