This Week

• First of several lectures on

• Documentary films about China

• Both by foreign film makers

• And Chinese film makers

Filmmakers to be considered this week

and on March 28th

Michelangelo Antonioni

Chung Kuo

(Cina) [1972]

Ruby Yang

Blood of Yingzhou District

Hu Jie 胡杰 

Lin Zhao

Other Chinese Film makers

• Tammy Cheung

• Zhou Hau• http://www.shmag.cn/feature/zhou_hao

• Zhao Dayong   赵大勇 • Chen Weijun 陈为军• Wu Wenguang 吴文光

1st - A note about film making to remember

• Portuguese Director Manoel de Oliveira

• 100 years old in December 2008

• Offers some simple truths about film

• Film is a synthesis of all art forms – and one must balance the 4 pillars of film

• Image, word, sound, and music

Note: from our last lecture

• In Hong Kong and China, Frederick Wiseman has influenced film makers

• Tammy Cheung –Secondary School (2002)

• Zhou Hao, Senior Year (2005)

History of Documentaries in China

• From 1949 – through the 1980’s virtually all film making in China – strictly controlled by the state

• Dominated by China Film Corporation

• Central Newsreel and Documentary Studio

• CCTV

• Foreigners and Chinese alike affected

1972 to 1990 – Gradual Opening Up

• 1972

• US President Nixon’s visit to China • See: http://www.yidff.jp/docbox/26/box26-3-e.html

• Real change in the 90’s with new techn.

Michelangelo Antonioni

1912- 2007

“Blow Up”(1966) “Zabrisky Point” (1970) “The Passenger” (1975)

Chung Kuo (Cina) [1972]

Chung Kuo (Cina) 1972

Transcript “Chung Kuo”• See: http://jmsc.hku.hk/blogs/docfilm08/antonioni-translation/

• See excerpt

• Also http://www.btmon.com/Video/Movies/M_Antonioni_-_Chung_Kuo_China_1972_docu.torrent.html

Foreign Doc Films about China• Early• Felix Greene• Later• Carma Hinton http://ceci.mit.edu/projects/china-longbow-removed/china_longbow/

• Hinton, Barme, Gordon

Morning Sun, (2004) http://www.morningsun.org/film/index.html

• Gate of Heavenly Peace, (1998)• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gate/

Other Foreign Films about China• From Mao to Mozart (1981)

Murray Lerner

• China in the Red (2003) Sue Williams

• China from the Inside (2006) Jonathan Lewis (4 hours)

• Tank Man (2006) Antony Thomas

Ruby Yang

The Blood of Yingzhou District• 39 Minutes• 2006• WILL SCREEN IN CLASS ON MAR 28

Chinese Doc Film Makers

• Some China Film resources• http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/28/chinas_new_do

cumentary.html

• French Critic Bérénice Reynaud 2003

• http://www.festivalshadows.info/UK/index.html Shadows

• http://www.cidfa.com/modules/index.php China Independent Film Archive

China’s “New Documentary Movement”

David L. Bandurski

China’s “New Documentary China’s “New Documentary Movement”Movement”

David L. BandurskiDavid L. Bandurski

Who Am I?

researcher for the HKU’s China Media Project (http://cmp.hku.hk).

free lance writer and investigative reporter (recent work: “Pulling the Strings of China’s Internet,” Dec. 2007, Far Eastern Economic Review)

aspiring independent documentary filmmaker

Hu Jie (胡杰 )

““My films had no formal distribution My films had no formal distribution channels. They merely circulated channels. They merely circulated

among my friends. I was happy just to among my friends. I was happy just to make documentaries on my own. make documentaries on my own.

Documentaries were about writing Documentaries were about writing history with cinematic scenes, about history with cinematic scenes, about the marriage of art and fact. In the the marriage of art and fact. In the

past this power belonged exclusively past this power belonged exclusively to the national film studios. Now it to the national film studios. Now it

was different. I had my own camera.was different. I had my own camera.””

Characteristics:

“naturalistic” approach (director’s voice often absent/no narration)

few domestic channels for distribution filmmakers come from diverse

backgrounds self-funded and dedicated focus on the underclass and the

untold (anti-hero)

Motivations:

a strictly-controlled speech tradition runs head on into new technologies

a reaction against propaganda news and films

art + film + journalism + field research + activism

The “Quixote Factor”

Zhao Dayong   赵大勇

Independent film maker; Street Life; Ghost town, Africans in Guangzhou

Ghost Town (2008)

• A film about Lisu and Nu minorities living in an “abandoned” local Communist Party town.

• The film looks at local customs and beliefs as well as broader social issues in the background (migration, sale of women)

• Entirely self-funded• Submitted by invitation to Cannes Film

Festival

• Play film excerpt

Questions

• Q and A

• David Bandurski

Next Lecture• On March 28th• We will start by showing Ruby Yang film

Blood of Yingzhou District and excerpts of an interview with the film maker

• We will also show an excerpt from Hu Jie’s film: “Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul”

• And with time remaining we will discuss other Chinese film makers

• Read: http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/05/35/hu_jie_documentaries.html