UNIONDOCS PRESENTS:
TODAY, OR THE GOLDEN AGE
Image from “I Have What? Chinese Peasants War: Rhetoric to Justice” (dir. Mao Chenyu)
Monday, November 25, 2013 at 7:30pm, $9 suggested donation
With filmmakers Yi Sicheng, Cong Feng, and Mao Chenyu in attendance for a discussion with curators and presenters Zhou Xin and Benny Shaffer.
UnionDocs
322 Union Ave. Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Last year, film festival organizers and filmmakers in China witnessed widespread strategic interventions when governmental authorities clamped down on independent film festivals in the cities of Kunming, Beijing, Nanjing and Hangzhou. Numerous festivals were cancelled and forced to go underground. The power was pulled by local authorities at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Beijing Independent Film Festival (BIFF), and this past August, when BIFF faced similar obstacles, a journalist in Beijing wrote of the death of indie cinema in China, though this claim was soon overturned by film festival organizers, who argue that the independent film festival will survive, even if forced to reinvent itself.
Three central figures from the Chinese documentary scene will discuss documentary filmmaking and exhibition in contemporary China, particularly the case of the Yunnan Multi-Culture Visual Festival (Yunfest). Yi Sicheng, the director of Yunfest, will present an introduction to the history of the festival, and speak to its broader significance in the Chinese documentary scene. Yi’s presentation will be followed by an artist talk in which filmmakers Cong Feng and Mao Chenyu will share excerpts from recent projects and engage the audience in discussion. All conversation in Mandarin will be presented with simultaneous English translation, and film excerpts will be screened with English subtitles.
Event listing at Union Docs