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TAPE

(Jiao Dai)

WATCH

Mandarin w/ English subtitles

Minutes: 

168

Director: 

Li Ning

Documentary

2010

|

China

Institutional

TAPE

Trailer

TAPE

For five grueling years, Li Ning documents his struggle to achieve success as an avant-garde artist while contending with the pressures of modern life in China. He is caught between two families: his wife, son and mother, whom he can barely support; and his enthusiastic but disorganized guerilla dance troupe. Li's chaotic life becomes inseparable from the act of taping it, as if his experiences can only make sense on screen.

Tape shatters documentary conventions, utilizing a variety of approaches, including guerilla documentary, experimental street video, even CGI. Tape captures a decade's worth of artistic aspirations and failures, while breaking new ground in individual expression in China.

 

  • WINNER, Silver Digital Award, YunFest Documentary Festival

  • MoMA Documentary Fortnight

  • International Film Festival Rotterdam

  • Jeonju International Film Festival

  • Beijing Independent Documentary Film Festival

"A riveting portrait of an artist's attempts at expression and conflicts with societal norms."

Museum of Modern Art

"Li succeeds in revealing his own soul"

Rotterdam International Film Festival

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