spectator@mcm - Brown University

spectator
Independent Cinema from China
In October MCM in partnership with the Bell
Gallery and the Department of East Asian Studies
screened several recent Chinese documentaries
and fiction films, including visits by the films’
directors. The October screenings began with
Zhang Zhanbo’s 2009 documentary Falling from
the Sky on October 3rd. The screening was held
in conjunction with Professor Joshua Neves’
“Outside Media” seminar and the Bell Gallery’s
current exhibition My Dad is Li Gang!, which
features the work of Shanghai based artist Jin
Shan. The installation and documentary focus on
development through the prism of China’s growing
space program. Zhang’s film, for instance, examines
life in the footprint of the Xichang Satellite launch
center—an area routinely assaulted by falling
debris from country’s increasingly ambitious
national and commercial satellite industry.
In mid-October, MCM also welcomed
documentary filmmaker and curator Wu
Wenguang’s “Folk Memory Project” to Brown.
Wu is widely regarded as the father of China’s
New Documentary Movement and continues
to both make films and support community/
amateur filmmaking and archiving in China.
The event was organized by Professor Neves and
featured four documentaries examining intergenerational
memory. In particular, Wu’s project
supports young filmmakers, often recent college
graduates, to return to their family villages and
create audiovisual records of China’s past: the
“three years famine,” the Cultural Revolution,
and other traumas that are largely missing from
official historiography. The films were screened
as part of a lunch-workshop in MCM, an evening
double feature in Sidney Frank Hall, and a visit to
Professor Lingzhen Wang’s “China Through the
Lens” course. The films included: Wu Wenguang’s
Treatment (2010), Zhang Menqi’s Self-Portrait
with Three Women (2010), Zou Xueping’s Satiated
Village (2011) and Luo Bing’s Luo Village: Me and
Ren Dingqi (2011).
Liu Jiayin is a critically acclaimed, award winning
female director from Beijing Film Academy, PR
China. Her films represent a radical, experimental
cinema practiced by a younger generation of
filmmakers in contemporary urban China. As a
female director, her films also foreground intimate
familial relationships, the quotidian life, and the
common struggle to survive in China’s marketbased
society. During her visit to Brown, October
28–31, we organized: a public double-feature,
screening Oxhide and Oxhide II on October 28,
a meeting between Director Liu and students
interested in Chinese cinema and filmmaking
at Brown and RISD on October 30, and a public
lecture titled “My Motivation in Filmmaking” on
October 31.
Her films blur documentary and fiction, casting
Liu and her parents in scripted versions of their
own lives in a small Beijing apartment. Critic
Shelley Kraicer called Liu’s Oxhide “The most
important Chinese film of the past several years
and one of the most astonishing recent films from
any country.” Her talk touched upon many topics,
including contemporary Chinese society, the
Chinese film industry, personal anecdotes, and
the aesthetic style and experimental features of
her films, providing invaluable insights into the
historical, political, and personal significance of her
work. Brown students arrived at her talk ready with
enthusiastic questions; we held an extended Q&A
session. Director Liu’s visit was highly successful
despite Hurricane Sandy!
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