Marking the 60th anniversary of “New China,” the Walker Art Center and the University of Minnesota co-present a timely series tracking the decades of political tumult and massive cultural and economic change that followed 1949’s Communist revolution. “The People’s Republic of Cinema” traces the evolution of the nation through the eyes of its most innovative filmmakers, as well as the changed landscape of its film industry.
The fourten films span from the leftist classical, made at the eve of the Communist victory, Crows and Sparrows (1949) to such “model plays” produced during the Cultural Revolution as Red Detachments of Women (1961, modern ballet version 1970) and Red Lantern (1970), from the “historical and cultural reflection” of the fifth generation like One and Eight (1983) and Yellow Earth (1984) to independent products of the sixth and the digital generations, such as Beijing Bastards (1993), Platform (2000), and Good Cats (2009, by dGenerate director Ying Liang, area premiere). As a whole, the series charts the unprecedented propulsive energies at work through years of radical transformation and looks to the future of a country still in flux – one responding both to its past and its relatively new prominence in the larger world.
The series is copresented by the Walker Art Center and the Consortium for the Study of the Asias at the University of Minnesota, and organized by Sheryl Mousley, Walker film curator, and Jason McGrath, associate professor of modern Chinese literature and film.
Dates: November 4 – 23, 2009 Locations: Walker Art Center Cinema (on 35mm film) and Bell Museum Auditorium, U of Minnesota (on video).
All films are in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles.
Schedule:
Wednesday, November 4 New Year’s Sacrifice (dir. Sang Hu, 100 min, 1956) 6:00 p.m., Bell Auditorium
Friday, November 6 Crows and Sparrows (dir. Zheng Junli, 113 min, 1949) 7:30 p.m., Walker Art Center
Saturday, November 7 Little Red Flowers (dir. Zhang Yuan, 91 min, 2006) 7:30 pm, Walker Art Center Additional showing on Wednesday, November 11 at 10:00 am.
Sunday, November 8 Red Detachment of Women (dir. Pan Wenzhan, et al., 120 min, 1970) 3:00 p.m. Walker Art Center
Monday, November 9 Red Detachment of Women (dir. Xie Jin, 92 min, 1961) 6:00 p.m., Bell Auditorium
Wednesday, November 11 Red Lantern (dir. Cheng Yin,112 min,1970) 6:00 p.m., Bell Auditorium
Friday, November 13 Yellow Earth (dir. Chen Kaige, 89 min, 1984) 7:30 p.m., Walker Art Center
Saturday, November 14 Platform (dir. Jia Zhangke, 154 min, 2000) 7:30 p.m., Walker Art Center
Monday, November 16 One and Eight (dir. Zhang Junzhao, 90 min,1983) 6:00 p.m., Bell Auditorium
Wednesday, November 18 Ermo (dir. Zhou Xiaowen, 98 min, 1994) 6:00 p.m., Bell Auditorium
Thursday, November 19 Beijing Bastards (dir. Zhang Yuan, 95 min, 1993) 7:30 p.m., Walker Art Center
Saturday, November 21 Good Cats (dir. Ying Liang, 103 min, 2009) and Cry Me A River (dir. Jia Zhang-ke, 19 min, 2009) 7:30 p.m., Walker Art Center
Monday, November 23 Pirated Copy (dir. He Jianjun, 90 min, 2004) 6:00 p.m., Bell Auditorium
For more information, please visit the program website.