A number of film directors whose titles we distribute have accounts on Weibo, the Chinese microblog comparable to Twitter. We looked through these accounts for interesting messages. The following were compiled by Yuqian Yan.
Ou Ning (director of Meishi Street and San Yuan Li):
9/11 Berenice Reynaud curated the Thematic Retrospective – Digital Shadows: Last Generation Chinese Film for San Sebastian International Film Festival. It will screen 20 films, including Meishi Street. (9/18-9/19, two screenings).
9/11 The press conference for 2011 Chengdu Biennial will be held tomorrow. I’m speechless after I got this notice, “According to the official requirement of the government press conference, please wear light-color, short-sleeve shirt with a tie.” There’s still enough time to buy a light-color, short-sleeve shirt, but no one has ever taught me how to wear a tie …
Zhao Liang (director of Crime and Punishment):
9/13 F***, Money can do everything! (commenting on “the Most Beautiful Moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival)
Cui Zi’en (director of Enter the Clowns, Queer China ‘Comrade China‘, We Are the… of Communism)
Professors should put all their effort into teaching and their life condition should be similar to mine – a small apartment, no car, low class. Those who also work for the government or make a fortune through academics are excluded. (Responding to “The possession of an ordinary Chinese family.”)
9/3 September 1st is the first day of school. 6,000 children from the immigrant worker’s family are out of school. I cried for a whole day and turned off my cell phone. Desperate. Woke up in the middle of the cool night, I don’t know if I should be angry or ashamed for living in this time-space.
Jia Zhangke (director of Dong)
9/8 Chinese cinema is facing too many taboos. One is the long-term film censorship, the other one I think that can not be ignored comes from the conservatism of Chinese audience. I once said, we are always discussing the issue of sex or violence, but it is always the case that the first one to write a letter of complaint is ordinary audience, even earlier than the government. ( Original article “Jia Zhangke talking about Chinese Cinema: Too Many Taboos.”)
Xu Tong (director of Fortune Teller)
9/3 Taiwanese scholar Guo Lixin visits Li Xianting at Songzhuang. Mr. Guo pays close attention to Mainland Chinese independent documentary. In 2009, he wrote the article “Right of Prostitutes, Sexual Morality and Self Rightness: Further Discussion on Moral Controversy of Wheat Harvest.” I leant a lot from it.
9?9 We are now at our final stage of rehearsal and preparation! I ‘m getting more and more excited! I’ve never expected that yesterday’s crazy experiment could be turned into a formal play… I told my surprised young guerrillas, “I’m always against art, against performance. What I want is presentation and discovery. You think it’s just a pretentious speech?! It’s what we are doing now!”