PDF Catalog - dGenerate Films

Transcription

Distributing the finest in independent Chinese film today
Film
Catalog
2.
WELCOME TO dGENERATE FILMS
In a few short years, dGenerate Films has become the leading North American distributor of independent cinema from mainland
China. Our catalog reflects uncensored and visionary content from the last decade of transformative social change and includes
narrative, documentary and experimental films of all lengths.
Made outside the system without anyone’s permission, these films are the only free media produced in mainland China today. We’re
proud to represent these films and their makers, and we’ve even named our company after independent cinema’s newest digital
revolutionaries - the d-Generation.
Dig into our catalog, watch one of our films, and you’re bound to be as fascinated, compelled and committed to these stories as we are.
Thank you for browsing!
Karin, Kevin, & Brent
Founders, dGenerate Films
HOW TO PURCHASE
Before we get into the details, we first want to thank you for your support, now and down the road. Not only are you one of a growing
number of film aficionados worldwide who appreciate the artistry and significance of the films we distribute, with your purchase you
are also enabling our filmmakers to continue telling their uncompromised stories. These films truly represent life as it’s lived in China,
without censorship, without compromise. On behalf of our filmmakers and our team, we thank you for your support.
dGenerate films are available to a range of audiences in various formats. Please see the last page of this catalog for details on film
availability. and pricing. Depending on release timing and rights, films may or may not be available in all formats. All of our films are
available to US customers; select films may be available for international sales. For up-to-the-minute pricing detail and film availability,
please visit the dGenerate Films website at http://dgeneratefilms.com/catalog or contact us at info@dgeneratefilms.com or
Institutional Customers
DVDs can be purchased through our partners at Amazon.com,
ReframeCollection.org, or by contacting us directly. Purchase orders
from accredited institutions can be accepted, as can credit card payments
through Paypal. Volume discounts are available for customers ordering
directly through dGenerate Films. Rights are for classroom and library
use only; public performance rights can be purchased at a discount in
combination with a DVD.
Public Performance Exhibitors
Films are available for rental in both tape and DVD formats. Prices start are
dependent on the screening detail. Contact us at sales@dgeneratefilms.com
or call us at (646) 360-0343 and we’d be happy to assist.
1166 Manhattan Avenue, Suite 303, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Home Audiences
Most of our films are available to home viewers in the US via online videoon-demand through several partners, including Amazon.com, Mubi.com,
Fandor.com, Indieflix.com, and more. Select films can be purchased on
home DVD directly through dGenerate Films.
Broadcast, Cable, Film Festivals, Foreign, and Beyond
We would love to bring our films to your television or cable station, film
festival, web platform, or any and all other film viewing platforms, wherever
you may be. Please give us a call to discuss!
http://dgeneratefilms.com
info@dgeneratefilms.com
+1 646 360 0343
3.
DOCUMENTARIES
GHOST TOWN (废城, Fei Cheng)
ZHAO Dayong (赵大勇). China, 2008. Documentary, 169 minutes.
Mandarin, Nu and Lisu w/ English subtitles.
“A miniature epic of the everyday” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“Compelling… You won’t be able to shut it off ” – Jim Hoberman, Village Voice
A remote village in southwest China is haunted by traces of its cultural past
while its residents piece together their existence.
Zhiziluo is a town barely clinging to life. Tucked away in a rugged corner of
Yunnan Province, Lisu and Nu minority villagers squat in the abandoned
halls of this remote former Community county seat. Divided into three parts,
this epic documentary takes an intimate look at its varied cast of characters,
bringing audiences face to face with people left behind by China’s new
economy. A father-son duo of elderly preachers argue over the future of their
village church. Two young lovers face a break-up over harsh financial realities.
A twelve year-old boy, abandoned by his family, scavenges the hillside to feed
himself.
“Directed with scrupulous attention to detail by Zhao Dayong” (Manohla
Dargis, The New York Times), GHOST TOWN is “one of the most
important films to have emerged from the booming (but still underexplored)
field of Chinese independent documentaries” (Dennis Lim, Moving Image
Source). GHOST TOWN “has a strong sense of historical consciousness,
an eye for unique material, and a real sympathy for the people in the film and
their tough lives” (Chris Berry, Goldsmiths University). “I do not expect to
soon find scenes to match GHOST TOWN’s mountaintop funeral, the
running along after a rowdy exorcism, or the scanning of faces at the town
Christmas chorale. His back to prosperity, Dayong finds hallowed ground”
(Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice).
1428
DU Haibin (杜海滨). China, 2009. Documentary, 117 minutes.
Mandarin and Sichuan dialect w/ English subtitles.
“This is independent documentary at its most sophisticated.” – Shelly
Kraicer, Vancouver International Film Festival
Du Haibin’s award-winning documentary of the earthquake that devastated
China’s Sichuan province in 2008 explores how victims, citizens and
government respond to a national tragedy.
The Great Sichuan Earthquake took place at 14:28 on May 12, 2008,
causing 70,000 deaths and 375,000 casualties. Days later, Du Haibin visited
Sichuan to capture the devastation as well as the recovery effort. Survivors
were reduced to salvaging destroyed pig farms in the mountains, selling
scrap metal for pennies, and pillaging homes. Seven months later, as the
nation celebrated Chinese New Year, Du returned to see how life had
changed in the stricken villages. Sidestepping the highly controlled media
tours, Du found scenes not seen on official TV, exposing the gap between
the Party’s promises and the disaster victims’ reality.
Using a poetic, elliptical narrative structure, Du Haibin delivers a vision of
human devastation that is “fascinating, beautifully crafted” (Ronnie Scheib,
Variety). Beyond describing the disaster and its consequences, the director
also examines the prominence of media and consumerism in contemporary
China: tourists buy DVDs of horrific post-earthquake footage, souvenir
albums of corpses, and pose for photos at sites of the highest death tolls. Du
depicts a world in chaos, both material and moral. “Without judgment but
with a deep compassion for their subjects, the filmmakers of 1428 bring us
a myriad of individual stories of absurdity, confusion and grief ” (Cherise
Fong, CNN).
+1 646 360 0343
4.
DOCUMENTARIES
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (罪与罚, Zui Yu Fa)
ZHAO Liang (赵亮). China, 2007. Documentary, 122 minutes.
Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
“Stunning” – Robert Koehler, Variety
On the North Korean border, Chinese military police enforce the law with
a heavy hand, leading to moments of harrowing abuse and surreal satire.
Amidst the barren wintry landscape of Northeast China, Chinese military
police officers rigidly enforce law and order in an impoverished mountain
town. They raid a private residence to bust an illegal mahjong game,
casually abuse a pickpocket accused of throwing away evidence, and berate
a confession out of a scrap collector working without a permit. The police
switch between precise investigative procedure, explosions of violent fury,
and moments of comic ineptitude, all captured incredibly before the
camera.
A prime example of how independent documentaries are on the vanguard
of Chinese cinema, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT is an unprecedented
look at the everyday workings of law enforcement in the world’s largest
authoritarian society. With penetrating camerawork, Zhao Liang (Petition,
2009 Cannes Film Festival) patiently reveals the methods police use to
interrogate and coerce suspects to confess crimes – and the consequences
when such techniques backfire. With a cold, objective eye that depicts
reality in great detail while withholding judgment, “Zhao’s artistry is
instantly apparent” (Robert Koehler, Variety).
GAI SHANXI AND HER SISTERS
(盖山西和她的姐妹们, Gai Shan Xi He Ta De
Jie Mei Men)
BAN Zhongyi (胡杰). China, 2007. Documentary, 80 minutes.
Mandarin, Japanese, Shanxi dialect w/ English subtitles.
GAI SHANXI AND HER SISTERS tells the story of one woman’s
brutal ordeal as a “comfort woman“ for the Japanese Army during World
War II.
Hou Dong-E, known as “Gai Shanxi,” the fairest woman in China’s Shanxi
province, was one of the many women abducted from their villages to be
sexually enslaved by Japanese soldiers stationed nearby. Fifty years later, she
joined other women throughout Asia to seek justice and reparations, but
she died before her demands were answered.
Chinese filmmaker Ban Zhongyi unearths Gai Shanxi’s tragic life through
the stories of the surviving women in the region. Ban also collects revelatory
testimonies from former Japanese soldiers stationed in Shanxi during the
war, breaking a decades-long silence over a dark chapter of China’s history.
Following one woman’s heroic journey, GAI SHANXI AND HER
SISTERS tells a universal story of female solidarity and survival.
Select Film Festival
• Amnesty International Film Festival
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5.
DOCUMENTARIES
NOSTALGIA (乡愁, Xiang Chou)
SHU Haolun (舒浩仑). China, 2006. Documentary, 70 minutes.
“A cinematic ode to Shanghai’s vanishing world” - NPR
“A touching film... highly personal.” - Michelle Chen, The Standard
Acclaimed filmmaker Shu Haolun explores the rich culture and history of
his Shanghai neighborhood upon its impending destruction.
Dazhongli is one of Shanghai’s oldest neighborhoods. Shu Haolun’s family
has lived there for three generations, enjoying a close-knit, communal
way of life with their neighbors. Now Dazhongli and its surrounding
neighborhoods are in the process of being demolished to make way for
gleaming skyscrapers, towering apartment complexes and luxury shopping
centers. In NOSTALGIA, Shu relays vivid details of growing up among
narrow alleys and courtyards murmuring with neighborhood gossip, back
when Shanghai was still closed to the world. While sharing a wealth of
memories, Shu uses his camera to capture the everyday details of his home
before they are wiped out forever.
NOSTALGIA is an ambitious cinematic essay that combines voiceover, interviews and re-enactments into a rich reflection of a city’s past
and present. In paying tribute to cultural traditions before they fade into
history, Shu’s work evokes a deeply moving feeling of nostalgia, “one that
has universal appeal... grounded in humanist principles” (Thomas Podvin,
That’s Shanghai). NOSTALGIA connects one man’s deeply intimate
reflections with global societal issues, “the questions raised are being asked
in cities around the world” (Reel China).
STRUGGLE (挣扎, Zheng Zha)
SHU Haolun (舒浩仑). China, 2006. Documentary, 50 minutes.
This powerful documentary explores the cruel realities of sweatshop labor
and workplace injury in China, and one lawyer’s mission to defend worker’s
rights.
Shenzhen, one of China’s most prosperous cities, attracts thousands
of migrant workers every year. These workers come with dreams of
opportunity and success, but many find themselves in dangerous working
conditions with no regulations to protect them. STRUGGLE tells the
story of three workers who lost their limbs in factory accidents that are
all too common in China. The workers describe 17-hour shifts that leave
them exhausted while operating heavy machinery, leading to disaster.
Management denies responsibility for the accidents, often refusing to pay
medical bills or compensate injured workers. But a crusading lawyer takes
on the bosses, leading to a groundbreaking lawsuit that changes workplace
regulations in China.
STRUGGLE examines one of China’s most crucial problems underlying
its booming economic production: the lack of worker’s rights. With
first-person interviews and rare courtroom footage, director Shu Haolun
explains the exploitive policies and practices of government officials and
factory bosses, and how lawyer Zhou Litai has taken up the cause of
worker’s rights. STRUGGLE reveals the harsh realities of sweatshop labor
in China, and shows the inspirational efforts of those seeking justice and
reform.
+1 646 360 0343
6.
DOCUMENTARIES
DONG (东)
JIA Zhangke (贾樟柯). China, 2006. Documentary, 70 minutes.
Mandarin, Sichuan dialect and Thai w/ English subtitles.
“A modern master. Jia Zhangke is among the most strikingly gifted
filmmakers working today.” - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“Magnificent! Passionate!” - Jacques Mandelbaum, Le Monde
“Incomparably rich!” - Stephanie Zacharek, Salon
China’s greatest living filmmaker Jia Zhangke (Platform, The World) travels
with acclaimed painter Liu Xiaodong from China to Thailand as they meet
everyday workers in the throes of social turmoil.
Liu Xiaodong is well-known for his monumental canvases, particularly
those inspired by China’s Three Gorges Dam project. In DONG, Jia
Zhangke visits Liu on the banks of Fengjie, a city about to be swallowed up
by the Yangtze River. The area is in the process of being “de-constructed”
by armies of shirtless male workers who form the subject of Liu’s paintings.
Liu and Jia next travel to Bangkok, where Liu paints Thai sex workers
languishing in brothels. The two sets of paintings are united in their
subjects’ shared sense of malaise in the face of the dehumanizing labor
afforded them.
Jia takes Liu’s work as a point of inspiration for his own cinematic
innovation. Produced as a companion piece to Still Life (Golden Lion,
Venice Film Festival), DONG stands on its own as an aesthetically
provocative exploration of the documentary form. Blessed with the
director’s signature compositional beauty and humanism, Jia’s vision
of China is “concrete and explosive” (Jean-Pierre Rehm, Cahiers du
Cinema). DONG exemplifies the cinematic mastery that has earned Jia the
distinction of being “the planet’s most excitingly original filmmaker” (Scott
Foundas, LA Weekly).
SUPER, GIRLS! (超级女生 , Chao Ji Nu Sheng)
JIAN Yi (简艺). China, 2007. Documentary, 73 minutes.
“As entertaining as it is revelatory” – Ronnie Scheib, Variety
SUPER, GIRLS! follows ten female teenagers on their quest to become
instant superstars on China’s biggest television show.
The Chinese equivalent of “American Idol,” the “Super Girls Singing
Contest” spawned an unprecedented pop culture phenomenon. Drawing
over 400 million viewers, the show’s runaway popularity spurred the
Chinese government to ban it after only two seasons.
The film provides unparalleled, intimate access into the contestants’ lives
over several months. Through candid interviews and footage of nail-biting
auditions and competitions, SUPER, GIRLS! offers a fascinating look
inside what the Chinese media have dubbed ‘the Lost Generation” and
their startling takes on sexuality and success in the new China.
+1 646 360 0343
7.
DOCUMENTARIES
QUEER CHINA, ‘COMRADE’ CHINA
(志同志, Zhi Tong Zhi)
CUI Zi’en (崔子恩). China, 2008. Documentary, 60 minutes.
China’s most prolific queer filmmaker presents a comprehensive historical
account of the queer movement in modern China.
QUEER CHINA, ‘COMRADE’ CHINA documents the changes and
developments in Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender culture that have
taken place in China over the last 80 years. Unlike any before, this film
explores the historical milestones and ongoing advocacy efforts of the
Chinese LGBT community. The film examines how shifting attitudes in
law, media and education have transformed queer culture from being an
unspeakable taboo to an accepted social identity. The film culminates with
the submission of Dr. Li Yinhe’s Same-sex Marriage Bill to the Legislative
Affairs Commission of the National People’s Congress in 2003, a major
landmark event in the ongoing struggle for acceptance of queer identity in
China.
Directed by Cui Zi’en, China’s leading queer theorist, activist and scholar,
the documentary includes rarely seen footage of the first ever appearance of
gays and lesbians on State television, including Cui Zi’en himself. The film
features exclusive interviews with over three dozen leading queer activists,
scholars and filmmakers, including Shi Tou, Li Yinhe and Zhang Yuan. The
opening night film of 2009’s ShanghaiPRIDE, China’s first ever LGBT
pride festival, QUEER CHINA, ‘COMRADE’ CHINA is nothing less
than the most authoritative account of queer cultural history in China to
date.
WE ARE THE ... OF COMMUNISM (我们是共产主义
省略号, Wo Men Shi Gong Chan Zhu Yi Sheng Lue Hao)
CUI Zi’en (崔子恩). China, 2007. Documentary, 94 minutes.
The mysterious closing of a Beijing school sends hundreds of migrant
children on a desperate struggle to reclaim their right to an education.
The Yuanhai Migrants Children’s School, which serves children of migrant
laborers in Beijing, is shut down by city officials for reasons never made
clear. The students and teachers manage to continue class, first by sneaking
into the shuttered campus, then moving inside a ruined factory, and even
setting up class on the street. One after another, these makeshift classrooms
fail. Over the course of the semester, attendance drops from 720 to 16. Due
to the dedication of the school staff and parents, the students persist in
taking lessons, whether inside a decrepit minibus or in their teacher’s tiny
apartment.
Filmmaker and activist Cui Zi’en spent months depicting a social plight that
threatens the tens of millions of migrant workers’ children in China. These
students face both social and administrative prejudice due to their families’
marginalized status. They are typically relegated to makeshift schools for
migrants, with poor facilities and sporadic shutdowns by local officials.
Following the personal journeys of students as they battle bureaucratic
corruption for their right to learn, Cui exposes a crisis of social values in the
wake of China’s economic reforms.
+1 646 360 0343
8.
DOCUMENTARIES
BEFORE THE FLOOD (淹没, Yan Mo)
LI Yifan (李一凡) and YAN Yu (鄢雨). China, 2005. Documentary, 147 minutes.
“An important piece of cinema.” - George Williamson, Eye for Film
In this landmark documentary, residents of the historic town of Fengjie
fight forced evacuation and government corruption over the building of the
world’s largest dam.
China’s Three Gorges Dam, the largest ever-built on earth, has displaced
millions of local residents whose towns and villages have been flooded.
Fengjie, a city that has thrived along the Yangtze River for a thousand years,
has only a few months left before being submerged completely under water.
Its citizens contend with administrators and each other over the residences
in ‘New Fengjie’, allocated via lottery and far smaller than the homes
they’ve worked a lifetime to build. Communist collectivism gives way to
individual ruthlessness, while the community battles against bureaucratic
mismanagement.
Shot over two years, BEFORE THE FLOOD is a breathtaking
achievement in verité-style documentary filmmaking. Directors Yan Yu and
Li Yifan observe the death of a city, from streets teeming with life to a ghost
town echoing with the sound of sledgehammers. A real-life disaster movie,
BEFORE THE FLOOD has won awards around the world and inspired
Jia Zhangke’s Still Life, shot in the same city. This profound film shows
the human effects of one of history’s grandest social engineering projects,
reflecting on the loss of both home and heritage.
BEFORE THE FLOOD II - GONG TAN
(淹没 II-龚滩, Yan Mo II - Gong Tan)
YAN Yu (鄢雨). China, 2008. Documentary, 60 minutes.
“A sensitive portrait of a community” - Ling Woo Liu, Time
Yan Yu follows his groundbreaking documentary BEFORE THE
FLOOD with this profile of the residents of Gongtan, a 1700-year-old
village soon to be demolished by a hydroelectric dam project.
Gongtan, a historic village located on a tributary of the Yangtze, is about
to be flooded by a dam project, forcing its residents to relocate. National
imperatives displace local lives as authorities make decisions with little
regard for village life. Ran Qingsong, a barber, and Ran Si, a cell-phone
proprietor, rally the residents of Gongtan to stand against their impending
displacement. But the will of the townspeople to save their land and homes
soon wavers in the face of external pressure and internal suspicion.
Three years after BEFORE THE FLOOD generated global criticism
towards the Three Gorges Dam Project, Yan Yu achieves intimate access
again, this time to the Gongtan villagers as they protest official meetings
and face off with construction workers eager to tear down their homes for
a day’s pay. “Yan Yu’s long-term commitment to the subject matter (he has
spent the last six years working on these films) shines through in this latest
effort to chronicle the human cost of a project that has forced 1.4 million
people to relocate” (Ling Woo Liu, Time).
+1 646 360 0343
9.
DOCUMENTARIES
USING (龙哥, Long Ge)
ZHOU Hao (周浩). China, 2006. Documentary, 105 minutes.
An unusual relationship develops between an urban Chinese couple
struggling with heroin and a filmmaker chronicling their addiction, in this
provocative documentary on drug abuse, filmmaking and friendship.
For three years, filmmaker Zhou Hao chronicled the lives of Long and Jun,
a couple struggling with heroin addiction in Guangzhou. Zhou captures
Chinese junkie subculture, its members languishing in a slum flophouse,
the equivalent of a modern day opium den. When Long is hospitalized after
a failed robbery, Zhou speaks out from behind the camera to intervene.
Still, Long and Jun persist, soon dealing drugs full-time to make ends meet.
As the couple increasingly offers lies for answers, Zhou must confront his
ethical responsibilities to them, as a friend and a documentarian.
USING probes a dark, cruel reality of contemporary Chinese society that
has rarely been seen by any audience. Addicts disclose techniques for dealing
with police, confronting sham suppliers and staying high throughout
the day. Zhou’s unflinching depiction of his friends’ repeated attempts to
quit blurs the line between filmmaker and subject, and raises provocative
questions about the ways in which each uses the other.
STREET LIFE (南京路, Nanjing Lu)
ZHAO Dayong (赵大勇). China, 2006. Documentary, 98 minutes.
“Compelling” – Ben Cho, Moving Pictures Magazine
STREET LIFE explores the hidden lives of homeless migrants who survive in
the shadows of one of Shanghai’s most historic and affluent streets.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Chinese migrants are drawn to the allure
of Shanghai, one of the world’s most vibrant cities, with hopes of earning a
decent living. Some end up in the dark alleys of Nanjing Road, Shanghai’s
largest shopping street, where they learn to hustle and scrape together any
kind of living they can. One migrant, known as Black Skin, faces numerous
pressures in his daily existence, including police violence. Black Skin’s story
intersects with those of fellow bottle collectors, enterprising thieves and even
a young boy who was abandoned. Eventually Black Skin goes mad, dancing
wildly through the crowds of Nanjing Road and in the doorways of luxury
shops.
Director Zhao Dayong (GHOST TOWN, 2009 New York Film Festival)
arrived in Shanghai in 2004 and began documenting the lives of itinerant
Chinese using digital video. He saw their stories as overlooked portraits of the
deep social impact caused by China’s rapid economic growth. Zhao uses bold,
exaggerated compositions in order to emphasize the relationship between
his vagrant subjects and the city streets they inhabit. The result is a raw, vivid
portrait of physical and psychological rootlessness. STREET LIFE reflects the
way of life for thousands of forgotten people in one of the world’s largest cities.
+1 646 360 0343
10.
DOCUMENTARIES
MEISHI STREET (煤市街, Mei Shi Jie)
OU Ning (欧宁). China, 2006. Documentary, 85 min.
MEISHI STREET shows ordinary citizens taking a stand against the
planned destruction of their homes for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In order to widen traffic routes for the Olymipc Games, the Beijing
Municipal Government orders the demolition of entire neighborhoods.
Several evictees of Meishi Street, located next to Tiananmen Square, fight
through endless red tape and the indifference of fellow citizens for the right
to keep their homes. Given video cameras by the filmmakers, they shoot
exclusive footage of the eviction process, adding vivid intimacy to their
story.
Acclaimed at over two dozen museums and galleries around the world,
MEISHI STREET, by renowned visual arists Cao Fei and Ou Ning,
works as both art and activism, calling worldwide attention to lives being
demolished in the name of progress.
Select Film Festivals
• Museum of Modern Art Documentary Fortnight
• Istanbul Biennial
SAN YUAN LI (三元里)
OU Ning (欧宁), CAO Fei (曹斐). China, 2003.
Experimental Documentary, 45 minutes.
Armed with video cameras, twelve artists present a highly stylized portrait
of San Yuan Li, a traditional village besieged by China’s urban sprawl.
China’s rapid modernization literally traps the village of San Yuan Li within
the surrounding skyscrapers of Guangzhou, a city of 12 million people. The
villagers move to a different rhythm, thriving on subsistence farming and
traditional crafts. They resourcefully reinvent their traditional lifestyle by
tending rice paddies on empty city lots and raising chickens on makeshift
rooftop coops.
Directed by acclaimed visual artists Ou Ning and Cao Fei and
commissioned by the Venice Biennale, SAN YUAN LI explores the
modern paradox of China’s economic growth and social marginalization.
• Venice Biennale
• Museum of Modern Art
• Taiwan International Documentary Festival
+1 646 360 0343
11.
DOCUMENTARIES
DISORDER (现实是过去的未来, Xianshi Shi
Guoqu de Weilai)
HU Jie (黄伟凯). China, 2009. Documentary, 58 minutes.
“Several features have caught the chaos of rapidly industrialized China, but
none is as raw or terrifying as this.” – Glenn Sumi, Now Toronto
Huang Weikai’s one-of-a-kind news documentary captures, with
remarkable freedom, the anarchy, violence, and seething anxiety animating
China’s major cities today.
As urbanization in China advances at a breakneck pace, Chinese cities
teeter on the brink of mayhem. One man dances in the middle of traffic
while another tries to jump from a bridge before dozens of onlookers. Pigs
run wild on a highway while dignitaries swim in a polluted river. These
scenes, unshowable on China’s heavily controlled television networks reflect
an emerging underground media, one that can truly capture the groundlevel upheaval of Chinese society.
In DISORDER, Huang Weikai takes footage collected from a dozen
amateur videographers and weaves them into a unique city symphony of
social dysfunction. Huang shatters and reconstructs a world that’s barely
comprehensible, though one whose energy is palpable: vibrant, dangerous,
and scary. The result is “a raw and candid look at the China typically hidden
from outsiders” (Ashley Meloche, The Epoch Times).
TAPE (Jiao Dao)
LI Ning. China, 2010. Documentary, 168 minutes. Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
With groundbreaking honesty, performance artist Li Ning turns his life
into art in this epic work of experimental documentary.
For five grueling years, Li Ning documents his struggle to achieve success as
an avant-garde artist while contending with the pressures of modern life in
China. He is caught between two families: his wife, son and mother, whom
he can barely support; and his enthusiastic but disorganized guerilla dance
troupe. Li’s chaotic life becomes inseparable from the act of taping it, as if
his experiences can only make sense on screen.
TAPE shatters documentary conventions, utilizing a variety of approaches,
including guerilla documentary, experimental street video, even CGI. Much
like Jia Zhangke’s Platform, TAPE captures a decade’s worth of artistic
aspirations and failures, while breaking new ground in individual expression
in China.
+1 646 360 0343
12.
DOCUMENTARIES
THOUGH I AM GONE (我虽死去, Wo Sui Si Qu)
Hu Jie (胡杰). China, 2007. Documentary, 68 minutes.
Pioneering filmmaker Hu Jie uncovers the tragic story of a teacher beaten to
death by her students during the Cultural Revoution.
In 1966, the Cultural Revolution exploded throughout China, as Mao’s
Red Guards persecuted suspected Rightists. Bian Zhongyun, the vice
principal of a prestigious school in Beijing, was beaten to death by her own
students, becoming one of the first victims of the revolutionary violence
that would engulf the entire nation.
In THOUGH I AM GONE, Hu draws upon photographs taken by
Bian’s husband, Wang Jingyao, whose impulse to document his wife’s death
makes him a spiritual forebear to Hu’s fearless work. Hu also incorporates
vivid accounts from surviving witnesses and archival footage to depict the
deadly madness of the era. The result is “a profoundly moving memorial to
the victims of Mao’s senseless political violence” (Dan Edwards, Real Time
Arts).
SEARCHING FOR LIN ZHAO’S SOUL
(寻找林昭的灵魂, Xun Zhao Lin Zhao De Ling Hun)
“Lin Zhao’s story is about modern China’s conscience and soul.” - Robert
Marquand, Christian Science Monitor
This landmark documentary reveals the tragic life of a gifted young woman
who was executed for speaking out during the height of Chairman Mao’s rule.
Lin Zhao, a top student from Peking University, was imprisoned for
defending students and leaders persecuted during Mao Zedong’s AntiRightist Movement in the late 1950s. A gifted writer, Lin composed endless
articles and poems from her cell. Forbidden to use pens, she wrote with a
hairpin dipped in her own blood. In 1968 she was executed, her tragic life
lost to the margins of history. Four decades later, filmmaker Hu Jie brings Lin’s
story to light and uncovers the details of this forgotten woman’s fight for civil
rights. .
SEARCHING FOR LIN ZHAO’S SOUL stands as a landmark in the
Chinese independent documentary movement, an unprecedented work
of investigation and recovery of modern China’s suppressed memories.
Director Hu Jie digs through artifacts and interviews first-hand witnesses to
Lin’s persecution, illuminating an era of political terror that sent millions to
their deaths. The result is a lasting testament to a young woman’s legacy of
courage and conviction. In the words of Chinese writer Ran Yunfei, “Lin
Zhao is the spiritual resource for all Chinese people and the legacy for the
whole world.”
+1 646 360 0343
13.
DOCUMENTARIES
TIMBER GANG aka LAST LUMBERJACKS
(木帮, Mu Bang)
YU Guangyi (于广义). China, 2006. Documentary, 90 minutes.
Northeastern Chinese dialect w/ English subtitles.
“Pure, unadorned cinema verite… consistently astonishing.” – Robert
Koehler, Variety
“A ‘must-see’.” – Neil Young, Jigsaw Lounge
“One of Chinese cinema’s most exciting first features” – Ben Cho, Moving
Pictures Magazine
Yu Guangyi’s stunning debut explores a grueling winter amongst loggers in
Northeast China as they employ traditional practices through one last, fateful
expedition.
For generations, the lumberjacks of Heilongjiang, China have made their
living harvesting timber amidst a barren, wintry landscape. These woodcutters
confront the elements, living in makeshift cabins surrounded by snow and
ice. Hand tools, sleds and horses are the only technology they employ to drag
massive trees down the perilous slopes of Black Bear Valley. At constant risk
of injury and death, they attempt to appease the mountain gods with ancient
rituals and sacrifices. Despite their heroic efforts to subsist, the deforestation
caused by their decades-long customs may lead to their ultimate demise.
Armed with a digital camera and survival gear, Yu Guangyi spent months
filming the lumberjacks of his hometown, offering “a privileged peek into
some exceedingly harsh lives” (Neil Young, Jigsaw Lounge). With no formal
training in filmmaking, Yu captures both vivid, workaday detail and moments
of stunning visual beauty that “gives the docu-adventurism of Werner Herzog
a serious run for his money” (Ben Cho, Moving Pictures Magazine). A lasting
testament to disappearing traditions, Last Lumberjacks “is a fascinating
glimpse at a rare way of life that few will ever witness” (Ain’t It Cool News).
East Wind Farming Camp
EAST WIND FARMING CAMP (国营东风农场,
Guo Ying Dong Feng Nong Chang)
EAST WIND FARMING CAMP examines the experience of hundreds
of “Rightists”–former teachers, cadres, university students, and military
officials who were persecuted for answering the Party’s call to voice their
criticisms. These citizens were incarcerated on a “thought reform through
labor” farm (a euphemism for “gulag”) in southwest China.
Based on interviews with former inmates and staffs of the farm, the film
re-examines the absurdities and abuses of modern Chinese history, from the
Great Leap Forward period through the Cultural Revolution, as well as the
sufferings of the bodies and souls sentenced to “remolding.”
+1 646 360 0343
14.
DOCUMENTARIES
KARAMAY
Karamay
XU Xin. China, 2010. Documentary, 356 minutes. Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
In 1994, the oil-rich city of Karamay in Northwest China was the site of
a horrible fire that killed nearly 300 schoolchildren. The students were
performing for state officials and were told to stand by while the officials
exited first. After the fire, the story was heavily censored in the Chinese
state media. To this day, the families of Karamay have not been allowed to
publicly mourn their children.
In KARAMAY, filmmaker Xu Xin helps a community break the silence
nearly two decades after their tragedy. The film is structured around a series
of first-person accounts from families, teachers and survivors, interspersed
with rare archival footage. Each narrative represents a complete and selfcontained story in which the subjects recount their reaction to the carnage
and the way it colored their view of nation, society, education, law, party
institutions and human nature. The result is an uncommonly thorough
investigation of a national tragedy long held in silence.
• Hong Kong International Film Festival, Documentary
Competition (2010)
• Locarno Film Festival, Young Jury Prize (2010)
• Vancouver International Film Festival (2010)
• AFI FEST, World Cinema (2010)
• Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Best Documentary Nominee (2010)
• Museum of Modern Art, Documentary Fortnight (2011)
• Cinema du Reel (2011)
• Jeonju International Film Festival (2011)
Fortune Teller
FORTUNE TELLER (算命, Wo Sui Si Qu)
XU Tong (徐童). China, 2010. Documentary, 129 minutes.
Li Baicheng is a charismatic fortune teller who services a clientele of
prostitutes and marginalized figures whose jobs, like his, are commonplace
but technically illegal in China. He practices his ancient craft in a village
near Beijing while taking care of his deaf and dumb wife Pearl, who he
rescued from her family’s mistreatment. Winter brings a police crackdown
on both fortune tellers and prostitutes, forcing Li and Pearl into temporary
exile in his hometown, where he revisits old family demons. His humble
story is told with chapter headings similar to Qing Dynasty popular fiction.
• Rotterdam International Film Festival, Bright Futures (2011)
• Chongqing Independent Film Festival, NETPAC Award, Best
Feature-length Film (2010)
• China Documentary Film Festival, Jury Prize (2010)
• Hong Kong Chinese Documentary Festival, 2nd Prize Feature
Film (2010)
• Vancouver International Film Festival, Dragons & Tigers (2010)
• Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival (2010)
• China Independent Film Festival, Top Ten Documentary
Showcase (2009)
• Beijing Independent Film Festival (2009)
+1 646 360 0343
15.
DOCUMENTARIES
DIGITAL UNDERGROUND IN THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC
Rachel TEJADA. USA, 2008. Documentary, 18 minutes.
This six-part documentary chronicles the changing state of China’s
independent, and underground, film scene.
Join dGenerate Films on a month-long trip to post-Olympics China. We
traveled from Shanghai to Nanjing to Beijing, and kept the cameras rolling.
The result is unprecedented access into China’s other film community,
where writing, filming, and distribution don’t always wait for government
approval.
The series starts at the largest underground film festival in China, explores
the spirit of independence in Beijing, tours art-film compounds, and
discusses the future of Chinese cinema. Along the way, the series features the
most important filmmakers, critics, producers, curators, and underground
scenesters making films, their way, in China today.
A great introduction to the films distributed by dGenerate Films and the
historical context within which our filmmakers work.
+1 646 360 0343
16.
NARRATIVES
OXHIDE (牛皮, Niu Pi)
LIU Jiayin (刘伽茵). China, 2005. Narrative, 110 minutes. Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
“The most important Chinese film of the past several years—and one of the
most astonishing recent films from any country” - Shelly Kraicer, Cinema-scope
“The most celebrated Chinese debut since Jia Zhang-ke’s Xiao Wu” –
Mubarak Ali, The Lumiere Reader
Daily life in an impossibly cramped Beijing apartment takes on epic
proportions in this, intimate portrait, with unprecedented access, of a
working-class Chinese family.
Boldly transforming documentary into fiction, Liu Jiayin cast her parents
and herself as fictionalized versions of themselves. Her father, Liu Zaiping,
sells leather bags but is slowly going bankrupt. He argues with his wife, Jia
Huifen, and his daughter over methods to boost business in the shop. A cloud
of anxiety follows them into sleepless nights shared in the same bed. But
through the thousand daily travails of city life, a genuine and deeply moving
picture of Chinese familial solidarity emerges from the screen.
With virtually no budget and boundless ingenuity, Liu Jiayin’s eye-opening
debut, shot when she was 23 years old, consists of twenty-three static, onescene shots within her family’s fifty square meter home. Liu keeps her small
DV camera in claustrophobic closeness to her subjects, often showing only
parts of their bodies as their voices dominate the soundtrack. OXHIDE
takes the microscopic physical and emotional details of a family and magnifies
them on a widescreen canvas. “Liu takes the film language of ‘realism’ into an
entirely new dimension” (Tony Rayns, Vancouver International Film Festival).
OXHIDE II (牛皮贰, Niu Pi II)
LIU Jiayin (刘伽茵). China, 2009. Narrative, 132 minutes. Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
“A masterpiece… inventive, quietly virtuosic.” - David Bordwell, Observations
on Film Art
“Arguably the most interesting new Chinese director to emerge since Jia
Zhangke.” - Peter Rist, Offscreen
Breaking new ground in cinematic art, Liu Jiayin’s follow-up to her masterful
debut OXHIDE turns a simple dinner into a profoundly intimate study of
family relationships.
Building on the stunning vision of OXHIDE (voted one of the best Chinese
films of the 2000s), writer-director Liu Jiayin once again casts herself and her
parents in scripted versions of their life in a tiny Beijing apartment. Liu takes
her uncompromising artistry to the extreme, setting all of the action around
the family dinner table, which doubles as her father’s leather-making station.
As the workbench is cleared for the family to make a dinner of dumplings,
the camera catches every meticulous detail of the action in real time. Small
moments between family members reveal deep insights into the mysteries of
family relations and the art of everyday living.
OXHIDE II advances the inimitable artistry of one of China’s most
prodigious filmmakers. Its lovingly intimate, naturalistic observations of
working-class life suggest “the ultimate work of everyday realism” (Mike
Walsh, Real Time Arts). At the same time, “Liu’s shots are carefully,
rigorously, exquisitely composed” (Berenice Reynaud, Senses of Cinema),
showcasing one of the most gifted visual artists working in China today. The
result is “a direct, honest, miniature epic” (Daniel Kasman, MUBI Notebook).
+1 646 360 0343
17.
NARRATIVES
LITTLE MOTH (血蝉, Xue Chan)
PENG Tao (彭韬). China, 2007. Narrative, 99 minutes. Hubei dialect w/ English subtitles.
“Suspenseful, moving yet ruthlessly unsentimental” - Jason Anderson, Eye Weekly
“A nearly perfect little film” - Shelly Kraicer, Vancouver International Film
Festival
When an impoverished country couple adopts a crippled young girl and
puts her to work begging on city streets, a battle soon ensues over her fate.
Luo Jiang and Guihua, a poor, middle-aged couple with few prospects,
decide to buy an 11-year-old girl, Xiao Ezi (aka “Little Moth”), for $140 in
rural China. Xiao Ezi’s life is in peril, as she is forced to earn money for her
new parents as a beggar while suffering from a blood disease that leaves her
unable to walk. Her greedy adoptive father, Luo Jiang, refuses to buy her
medicine, while Guihua’s growing maternal affection wracks her with guilt.
After a run-in with local extortionists, the three flee into the territory of the
unsavory Mr. Yang, whose one-armed boy Xiao Chun is also forced to beg.
Inevitably the grownups take turns taking advantage of each other, giving the
children a rare opportunity to develop a protective bond with one another.
With virtually no budget, a hand-held digital camera and a cast of nonprofessionals, Peng Tao turns the sordid street life of small town China into
a chain-reaction tale of human cruelty and unforgettable suspense. LITTLE
MOTH “melds the anger and storytelling scope of Dickens, the docinfluenced immediacy and sensitive gaze of the Dardenne brothers, and the
best tendencies of recent Chinese cinema” (Robert Koehler, Variety).
RAISED FROM DUST (举自尘土, Ju Zi Chen Tu)
GAN Xiao’Er (甘小二). China, 2006. Narrative, 102 minutes. Henan dialect w/ English subtitles.
RAISED FROM DUST, by acclaimed independent Chinese filmmaker Gan
Xiao’Er, presents an unprecedented, intimate portrait of the lives of Chinese
Christians in rural China.
“A gentle, sympathetic look at the role of faith in a poor rural Xiao-Li is a devoted housewife and an active member of her local Catholic
church in the Hunan farmlands of southern China. Her faith is put to the test
community” – Richard Kuipers, Variety Magazine
as her husband is hospitalized with respiratory illness due to unsafe working
conditions, leaving his life clinging to an oxygen machine. She finds support
from members of her church, and loses herself in making preparations for a
church wedding ceremony. The church itself is watched with suspicion and
ignorance by the community at large, who approach it only when looking for a
superstitious cure for someone’s illness. Their superficial understanding of faith
contrasts with Xiao-Li, who is ultimately called upon to make a life-or-death
sacrifice to save the future of her family.
A heartbreaking story told with compassion while avoiding melodramatic
excess, RAISED FROM DUST sheds light on the unexplored lives of the
approximately 40 million Christians in China. Filmed with a beautiful eye
for both vast rural landscapes and human intimacy, RAISED FROM DUST
announces Gan Xiao’Er as a new major talent possessing both unique stories and
genuine storytelling abilities.
• Rotterdam International Film Festival
• Pusan International Film Festival
+1 646 360 0343
18.
NARRATIVES
THE OTHER HALF (另一半, Ling Yi Ban)
YING Liang (应亮). China, 2006. Narrative, 111 minutes.
Sichuan dialect w/ English subtitles.
“A fierce and harrowing cry of political rage.” - Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“Subtly subversive” - The New York Times
“One hell of a beautiful film... Endlessly haunting... with serene, even joyous
consciousness that is the opposite of despair.” - Ronnie Scheib, Variety
Xiaofen (Zeng Xiaofei) spends all day listening to everything that’s wrong
with China, opening her eyes to the chaos that threatens her own life.
Working as a secretary for a legal office, Xiaofen records clients detailing
the sordid aspects of their lives: divorce cases, medical malpractice suits,
financial corruption and old-fashioned personal revenge. Xiaofen starts to
question her own relationship with her boyfriend, fresh out of prison and
looking to get into trouble again with his gambling habit. While Xiaofen
deals with the overwhelming social malaise surrounding her, rumors spread
of a disaster at the local chemical plant, threatening to poison the entire city.
Indie director Ying Liang follows up his celebrated debut TAKING
FATHER HOME with a brutally frank portrait of the social and
environmental problems plaguing contemporary China. “A vivid angle into
ordinary life in China” (David Bordwell), Ying Liang’s filmmaking examines
multiple facets of society with a deceptively direct filmmaking style “that has
few parallels in modern cinema” (Richard Brody, The New Yorker).
TAKING FATHER HOME
(背鸭子的男孩, Bei Ya Zi De Nan Hai)
YING Liang (应亮). China, 2005. Narrative, 100 minutes. Sichuan dialect w/ English subtitles.
“A triumph of vision and talent.” - Jay Weissberg, Variety
“Filmmaking at its best.” – Film Intelligence
Seventeen-year old Xu Yun (Xu Yun) leaves the Chinese countryside to
search for his father, and finds instead a nightmare vision of survival in the
modern city.
Traveling with no money and only two ducks as collateral, Xu Yun walks
into an urban jungle of gangsters and thieves, throwing his life into danger.
He earns the sympathy and support of streetwise hustler Scar (Wang Jie)
and a cynical policeman (Liu Xiaopei). Both help Xu Yun find clues to the
whereabouts of his father, but their efforts are dashed by a 24-hour flood
warning forcing the sudden evacuation of the entire city. Will Xu Yun find
his father in time, and if so, will he bring his father back home?
Winner of several international festival awards, TAKING FATHER
HOME is the debut feature of radical independent filmmaker Ying Liang,
who borrowed equipment and recruited friends and family to realize his
fierce vision of an emotionaly scarred society. The film presents “a side of
China that is rarely, if ever, seen on film” (Andrew Grant, Filmbrain).
• San Francisco International Film Festival, Best First Feature
• Hong Kong International Film Festival, Golden Digital Award
• Tokyo Filmex Film Festival, Special Jury Prize
+1 646 360 0343
19.
NARRATIVES
THE BLACK AND WHITE MILK COW
(一只花奶牛, Yi Zhi Hua Nai Niu)
YANG Jin (杨晋). China, 2004. Narrative, 93 minutes.
Shanxi dialect w/ English subtitles.
A young schoolteacher unknowingly enters a tangled web of politics in
Yang Jin’s unsentimental dissection of the Chinese countryside.
When his father dies from AIDS following a botched blood transfer,
Jinsheng must return to his home village to take care of his aging
grandmother. Taking on the role of a schoolteacher in this barren village,
Jinsheng is given a milk cow for his salary in place of money. On behalf
of his students, the young man cunningly uses the cow to gain influence
within this poor community dominated by stifling bureaucratic governance
and backward feudal customs. Will Jingsheng’s unexpected rise to power
be crushed within this oppressive environment, or will he find his way back
out?
Shot on a micro-budget with remarkable black-and-white compositions,
this debut film by Yang Jin (ER DONG, 2009 Rotterdam Film Festival),
is a bold look at the starkly limited prospects for youth stranded in
China’s poorest regions. The film depicts a rural landscape left behind by
China’s urban growth, blighted by poverty and HIV, still a taboo topic in
China. THE BLACK AND WHITE MILK COW offers one of the
most thoughtful considerations of social commitment and individual
responsibility in contemporary Chinese cinema.
ER DONG (二冬)
YANG Jin (杨瑾). China, 2008. Narrative, 151 minutes. Shanxi w/ English subtitles.
A rebellious teenager endures boarding school expulsion, family pressures
and the harsh realities of rural life in northern China, until an uncovered
secret from his past changes his life forever.
Er Dong lives alone with his devout Christian mother in a small village.
Frustrated with his bad behavior, his mother takes him to a Christian
school with the hope that he will find God as well as a new direction in
life. Instead, he finds a girlfriend, Chang’e, and their misconduct leads to
their expulsion. Together they must face up to the harsh realities of work,
parenthood and adult life in the tough economic reality of contemporary
China. Recurring nightmares that plague Er Dong lead him to a shocking
revelation of his own past.
Yang Jin’s second feature is a detail-rich, documentary-style portrait that
builds with clear-eyed assurance through the life of a seemingly unheroic
and unremarkable country boy. It’s not until the film looks backwards that
one gains the full scope of Er Dong’s strangely epic journey. Quietly moving
and full of authentic insight into the prospects for youth in rural China, ER
DONG announces the arrival of a major new talent in filmmaker Yang Jin.
+1 646 360 0343
20.
NARRATIVES
FUJIAN BLUE (金碧辉煌, Jin Bi Hui Huang)
Robin WENG (翁首鸣, WENG Shuoming). China, 2007. Narrative, 90 minutes.
Mandarin and Fujianese w/ English subtitles.
Two interweaving stories of youth crime and family crisis shed light on
illegal immigration and human trafficking in China’s Fujian province, in
this award-winning debut feature.
In the southeastern coastal province of Fujian, Amerika and Roppongi
(whose names refer to their absent fathers’ whereabouts) front “The Neon
Knights,” a young band of delinquents caught up in fast living. They fuel
their riotous routine by videotaping and blackmailing rich women engaged
in trysts while their emigrant husbands are sending checks from overseas.
Amerika’s ruthlessness is put to the test when he catches his own mother
in an affair. Meanwhile, fellow gang member Dragon, who turns to crime
to pay his family’s debt from smuggling his brother to Ireland, goes into
hiding after stabbing a man. After an unexpected windfall, Dragon ponders
whether to follow his brother out of the country or to help his family.
“Compelling.” - Cameron Maitland, Schema Magazine
“First-time director Robin Weng injects marvelous energy into
Fujian Blue” - Gautaman Bhaskaran, The Hollywood Reporter
Robin Weng’s debut brings alive the world of Fujian, notoriously known as
China’s centre for illegal emigration and human trafficking. Shot vividly on
film with street-level realism, Fujian becomes a blistering microcosm for an
entire generation of young Chinese lost in the global era. FUJIAN BLUE
is “an unflinching depiction of the effect of globalization. Weng achieves a
naturalism in detail that borders on investigative documentary” (Michael
Guillen, The Evening Class).
BETELNUT (槟榔, Bing Lang)
YANG Heng (杨恒). China, 2005. Narrative, 112 minutes.
Hunan dialect w/ English subtitles.
“Exquisite!” - Tony Rayns, Film Comment
“Pure cinema” - Susanna Harutyunyan, FIPRESCI, The International
Federation of Film Critics
Along a sleepy Hunan riverside, two delinquent boys experience a summer
of love and violence in Yang Heng’s visually stunning debut.
Ali and Xiao Yu are two teenage rebels idling away their days along the
banks of a river in Jishou, a quiet town in Hunan province. They steal
motorbikes, bully and rob kids, sing karaoke and get into fistfights outside
the local internet bar. But their rough exterior belies a deeper romanticism,
and a tenderness unfolds between them and their teenage loves. As one day
bleeds into the next in this impoverished rural setting, it becomes apparent
that these sun-baked days of misspent youth will be the wildest, freest time of
their lives.
These everyday subjects are transformed by a groundbreaking digital
cinematography unlike any other Chinese film. Alternating deep-focus with
bold flatness, Yang explores spaces with a mastery that recalls both classical
Chinese and modernist landscape painting. Filmed in a summery palette
with images that give off an otherworldly glow, BETELNUT offers a oneof-a-kind vision of what it’s like to be young, poor and free in China. “Yang is
a first-class visual stylist, and BETELNUT is far and away the most exciting
debut film I’ve seen all year” (Michael Sicinski, The University of Houston).
+1 646 360 0343
21.
NARRATIVES
ENTER THE CLOWNS
(丑角登场, Chou Jue Deng Chang)
CUI Zi’en (崔子恩).China, 2002. Narrative, 80 minutes. Mandarin w/ English subtitles.
“Liberating... ENTER THE CLOWNS conveys a sense of cinema at the
vanguard.” - Scott Foundas, Variety
“Cui Zi’en inaugurates a new queer Chinese cinema.” - Tony Rayns, Time Out
Straight, gay and in-between Beijingers unleash a whirlwind of transsexual
mayhem in this groundbreaking, gender-bending debut by China’s
preeminent queer filmmaker.
Xiao Bo (Yu Bo) lives in a world where the lines defining men from women
are constantly dissolving. He kneels at the deathbed of his father (Cui Zi’en)
who has become a woman, and whose dying wish is to have oral sex with
his/her son. His boyfriend “Nana” has also undergone a sex change, but
Xiao Bo no longer finds her attractive as a woman. A sexual chain reaction
ensues that wreaks havoc on traditional Chinese roles that govern male and
female, parent and child.
Filmmaker, novelist and queer activist Cui Zi’en caused an international
sensation with his shockingly transgressive debut. Inspired by the likes of
Andy Warhol and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, but set within a specifically
Chinese context, ENTER THE CLOWNS is “a movie that says everything
you know about sexual identity and gender orientation is wrong” (Tony
Rayns, Time Out). “Cui may be unique as China’s first gay filmmaker, but
it is... in the international pantheon of queer filmmakers that we must
ultimately locate him” (Chris Berry, positions: east asia cultures critique).
+1 646 360 0343
FORMAT AVAILABILITY & PRICING
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Purchase Detail
Pricing
$295
$195
$195
$95
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<$5
$29.95
(feature), $9.95
(short)
TBD
Films Available or Coming Soon to DVD
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Before the Flood I
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Before the Flood II
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Betelnut
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Black and White Milk Cow
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Crime and Punishment
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Digital Underground in the People's Republic
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Disorder
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Dong
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Enter The Clowns
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Er Dong
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Fujian Blue
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Gai Shani and Her Sisters
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Ghost Town
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In Search of Lin Zhao's Soul
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Little Moth
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Meishi Street
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Nostalgia
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Ohide
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Ohide 2
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Queer China, 'Comrade' China
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Raised From Dust
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San Yuan Li
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Street Life
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Struggle
Super. Girls!
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Taking Father Home
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The Other Half
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Though I Am Gone
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Timber Gang aka Last Lumberjacks
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Using
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We are the … of Communism
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Fortune Teller
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Tape
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Karamay
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+1 646 360 0343
Ec o
no
mi
se
cs
Stu
die
Ed
s
uca
tio
n
En
vir
on
me
nta
Film
lS
tud
Stu
ies
die
s
Ge
nd
er
Stu
die
His
s
tor
y
Hu
ma
nit
ies
Inte
rna
tio
na
lR
Jou
ela
rna
tio
lism
ns
Leg
al
Stu
die
s
Lite
rat
ure
Me
dia
&C
om
Mu
mu
sic
nic
at i
on
s
Per
for
mi
ng
A
Po
r ts
litic
al
Sci
en
Psy
ce
cho
log
y
Pu
bli
cH
ea
lt h
Qu
eer
Stu
die
Re
s
gio
na
lS
tud
Re
ies
lig
iou
sS
tud
So
ies
cio
log
y
Ur
ba
nP
lan
nin
g
Ch
ine
ss
&
Stu
d
Bu
sin
e
As
ian
Ar
t
Ar
chi
An
th
ies
FILMS BY ACADEMIC SUBJECT
rop
olo
gy
tec
tur
e
23.
Narrative
Betelnut
x
x
Black and White Milk Cow
x
x
Enter The Clowns
x
x
x
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Er Dong
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
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x
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x
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Fujian Blue
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x
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Little Moth
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x
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x
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x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
The Other Half
x
Oxhide
x
Oxhide 2
x
Raised From Dust
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
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x
x
x
x
x
x
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x
Taking Father Home
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x
x
x
x
x
Documentary
1428
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x
x
Before the Flood I
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x
x
x
x
x
x
x
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x
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x
x
x
x
x
x
Before the Flood II
x
Crime and Punishment
x
Digital Underground in the People's Republic
x
x
x
Disorder
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Dong
East Wind State Farm
Fortune Teller
x
Gai Shanxi and Her Sisters
Ghost Town
x
x
x
In Search of Lin Zhao's Soul
Karamay
Meishi Street
x
x
Nostalgia
Queer China, 'Comrade' China
x
San Yuan Li
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x
x
x
x
x
x
x
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Struggle
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x
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x
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x
Though I Am Gone
Timber Gang aka Last Lumberjacks
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x
Using
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We are the … of Communism
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Tape
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Street Life
Super. Girls!
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+1 646 360 0343

PDF Catalog - dGenerate Films

Transcription

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