Festival Shadows - Chinese Independent Cinema

Friday 9th October & Saturday 10th October Doors 7:30pm £6 or £10 for both days Shadows is a festival that focuses on Chinese independent cinema, an alternative cinema defined by an aesthetic which is deeply informed by the digital era. When independent Chinese filmmakers grab their digital cameras, they capture an invisible world that is prohibited in the official audiovisual landscape, images that show, among other things, the breakup of rural communities, outcasts at the heart of towns and a young generation beset by doubt. The aim of the Shadows Festival is to expose a radically alternative vision of the country, through films and new talents that we have brought back from China. www.festivalshadows.info www.aestheticamagazine.com FRIDAY: 1. Selection of shorts : 67' ● A Bridge Blown Up / Chen Zhong / 14' / 2008 ● Da Shi Dai / Zhang Ding / 14' / 2007 ● The Explosion Is A Voice At Time The Generation Hear / Huang Xiaopeng / 5' / 2007 ● Heres And Theres / Zhang Yi / 19' / 2006 ● Fragment / Ni Keyun / 25' / 2006 2. Fiction ● Mid-Afternoon Barks / Zhang Yuedong / 78' / 2007 SATURDAY: 1. Focus : Sun Xun and Pi Animation Studio : 70' ● Utopia In The Day / Sun Xun / 5' / 2004 ● The Lie Of The Magician / Sun Xun / 5' / 2005 ● Chinese Words . War / Sun Xun / 3' / 2005 ● Shock Of Time / Sun Xun / 6' / 2006 ● Lie / Sun Xun / 8' / 2006 ● Mythos / Sun Xun / 11' / 2006 ● Requiem / Sun Xun / 8' / 2007 ● Heroes No Longer / Sun Xun / 9' / 2008 ● Coal Spell / Sun Xun / 8' / 2008 ● The New China / Sun Xun / 6' / 2008 2. Documentary ● Though I Am Gone / Hu Jie / 70' / 2007 FULL PROGRAM

Friday 9th October: 1. Selection of shorts : 67' ● A Bridge Blown Up / Chen Zhong / 14' / 2008 Taken from a series of videos dealing with the Three Gorges Dam's construction, Chen Zhong uses the demolition of a bridge to create an experimental film. ● Da Shi Dai / Zhang Ding / 14' / 2007 A sophisticated young man's night and equestrian runs in Shanghai. ● The Explosion Is A Voice At Time The Generation Hear / Huang Xiaopeng / 5'/ 2007 Set on a traditional chinese street, decelerated hip-hop music mixes and mimics the crowd's walk and movement. Sensless subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen which are the result of successive translations from English to Chinese through an automatic translator. These subtitles seem to invite the audience to take part in an absurd karaoke. ● Heres And Theres / Zhang Yi / 19' / 2006 Divided in three parts, this documentary by Zhang Yi divides time into fragments while isolating visual components of a house, a train station and a stadium. Reduced to graphic and audio qualities, people, places and things reconstruct the scenery of a small town. ● Fragment / Ni Keyun / 25' / 2006 Using Jiangnan area poetic language, No Keyun makes his characters evolve into fissures of time, space and emotions. 2. Fiction ● Mid-Afternoon Barks / Zhang Yuedong / 78' / 2007 A shepherd and a stranger meet by chance over a bottle of alcohol. As night falls, they are told that they can spend the night in the inn provided they pitch an electric pole in the field. The following day, when they wake up, the pole has disappeared. The two men become disconcerted and wonder if it was a dream... Saturday 10th October: 1. Focus : Sun Xun and Pi Animation Studio : 70 A rising figure in the animation world, Sun Xun is the founder of Pi Animation Studio where he has engendered a world that exists between dreams and apocalypse. The following ten movies are the result of four years of intense work. They deal with the question of construction and interpretation of history. ● Utopia In The Day / Sun Xun / 5' / 2004 A disturbing puppeteer pulls the strings of a world of chaos and pain. ● The Lie Of The Magician / Sun Xun / 5' / 2005 A magician transforms his body into a landscape of a new imaginary world. His skin is the canvas on which a painted universe appears. ● Chinese Words War / Sun Xun / 3' / 2005 Chinese symbols become the soldiers engaged in a written war. ● Shock Of Time / Sun Xun / 6' / 2006 In this film about power and lies Sun Xun uses black ink and newspaper to denounce the manipulation of history. ● Lie / Sun Xun / 8' / 2006 The top-hatted magician moves recreates his apparition in a warlike setting. ● Mythos / Sun Xun / 11' / 2006 Using the technique of collage, Sun Xun explores both personal and collective memory. ● Requiem / Sun Xun / 8' / 2007 The apocalypse has arrived: streets are burning and the mosquitoes are ready for the attack. ● Heroes No Longer / Sun Xun / 9' / 2008 The revolutionary background music of this movie emerges us into the soviet past of 1950's China. ● Coal Spell / Sun Xun / 8' / 2008 Using various techniques, Coal Spell relates recent history and highlights the crucial impact of coal on our environment. ● The New China / Sun Xun / 6' / 2008 "In magician we trust" 2. Documentary Though I Am Gone / Hu Jie / 70' / 2007: The starting point of this film is photographs taken at the very start of the Cultural Revolution by a currently retired professor, Wang Jingyao. These images show the corpse of his wife Bian Zhongyun, at the time vice-principal of an elite college in Beijing, humiliated and beaten to death by her young pupils. The old man's account and that of his colleagues, shed light on this assassination, one of the first in a long list of men and women prosecuted during the Cultural Revolution.