By Maya E. Rudolph
The 8th annual China Independent Film Festival will commence October 28th with an exciting roster of narrative, documentary, and short films screening in Nanjing. The festival this year boasts a balanced feature narrative and documentary program, and an extensive program of shorts, experimental films, a selection of shorts from Germany, and four selections from the Folk Memory Project.
Kicking off the documentary program is Zheng Kuo’s 798 Station, a 2011 film documenting the evolution of Beijing’s 798 factory space from an East German-engineered industrial park to a contemporary art hotspot. Also screening on the festival’s first day is Cong Feng’s (director of 2008’s Doctor Ma’s Country Clinic) The Unfinished History of Life, a serious and thorough account of a group of friends and acquaintances in Gansu province, their daily lives and concerns unfolding over several hours of footage.
Yang Heng, the director of Betelnut (distributed by dGenerate), brings to the narrative program a second feature, Sun Spots. This 2010 Hong-Kong co-production boasts a vaguely surrealistic, hauntingly still story of violence and redemption. Other films by directors represented by dGenerate are No. 89 Shimen Road (Shu Haolun, Nostalgia, Struggle), Shattered (Xu Tong, Fortune Teller), and Cop Shop II (Zhou Hao, Using, The Transition Period).
The full program is listed following the break:
Documentary Program:
798 Station, Zheng Kuo
God Bless You, Li Miao
Waiting at the Door, Sun Haoran
The Unfinished History of Life, Cong Feng
Gas, Lin Xin
Glance, Florid Sprice
Eight-Ingredient Porridge, Li Dong
God Bless You, Li Miao
Seven Days in a Year, Wang Hao
Narrative Program:
Last Chestnut, Zhao Ye
Pear, Zhang Ciyu
Sun Spots, Yang Heng
Lost in the Mountains, Gao Ziping
Old Dog, Pema Tseden
Huan Huan, Song Chuan
No. 89 Shimen Raod, Shu Haolun
Tiger, Bi Gan
Celestial Kingdom, Wang Chao
Folk Memory Project:
The Starving Village, Zou Xueping
Satiated Village, Zou Xueping
Luo Village: Me And Ren Ding, Luo Bing
Self-Portrait: At 47 KM?Zhang Mengqi
Shorts and Experimental Program:
Chronicles of Hulling Rice, Gui Shuzhong
The Cockfighters, Jin Rui
When the Bough Breaks, Ji Dan
To Justify Bu Qinfu, Wang Yunlong and Han Yu
Cop Shop II, Zhou Hao
Shattered, Xu Tong
The Cold Winter, Zheng Kuo
Land of Black Gold, Li Xiaofeng
Chronicles of Hulling Rice, Gui Shuzhong
The Days, Wei Xiaobo
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