|
Film
Yunnan Big Screen Film FestivalPosted by Jeremy Goldkorn, December 7, 2007 5:44 PM
The 2007 Big Screen Film Festival concluded in Kunming last week, and your correspondent was one of the jurors. There were over 90 films from all over the world, including animations, experimental shorts, and full length documentaries and feature films. My fellow jurors were Marco Ceresa of the Ca' Foscari University of Venice who is one of the organizers of the Venice Film Festival, and Baobei'r in Love screenwriter Wang Yao (王要). The festival took place inside the Yuansheng ethnic minority theater, a privately-run organization dedicated to preserving the dance and music of Yunnan's minority peoples. The Yuansheng theater is in an interesting spot, an old factory yard that has been occupied by cafés, galleries and bars. It's a little like 798—the former arms factory in Beijing that has become a zone of art and posers. In addition to the films, there were nightly music performances, including the house musicians and dancers of Yuansheng (see this video), Kunming-based bilingual hip hop duo Rap Republic (说唱共和国), and Japanese electro-chanteuse Tujiko Noriko who flew in from Paris for the occasion. Visiting directors included Hong Kong's Mak Yan Yan (麦婉欣) whose last feature film was Butterfly (蝴蝶) was about a lesbian affair in Hong Kong. Mak's new film won the best feature film award at the festival in Kunming.After five heady days of film and music, this was our juror's statement: Yunnan Big Screen Film Festival Winners All the films selected say something about confronting modernity, and the ways traditional minority cultures cope with change. Animation Video art and experimental films Short film Documentary Feature film
|
Partner Links
Jobs in China
Recent Comments
affordabe on
Blogspot unblocked, but Blogger is blocked
Adam J. Sc on
Snow in Beijing
Peter Kauf on
Bound feet in China
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
![]() Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
Xujun Eberlein's Apologies Forthcoming: Hong Kong's Blacksmith Books has published a short story collection by Xujun Eberlein.
Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine - 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ The 'national' in National Day (2006.10): Xiao Feng writes about China's national flavor, national curse, national bird, national car, and so forth, Dongfang Yu writes on the true meaning of China's National Day in the age of angry youth. + Don't ask so laowai don't have to tell (2008.07): An essay was written by Geremie Barmé, scholar, filmmaker and author of the new book The Forbidden City. + Religion and government in an uneasy mix (2008.03): Phoenix Weekly (凤凰周刊) article from October, 2007, on government influence on religious practice in Tibet.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky
or Feedburner |





Comments on Yunnan Big Screen Film Festival
"Documentary
Living in a Perfect World by Diego D'innocenzo and Marco Leopardi, Italy
Mennonites are a Luddite, immigrant religious group a little like the Amish. This film depicts four communities of Mennonites in Mexico and Bolivia facing modernity. Some of the communities in the film decide to accept some modern amenities like electricity and cars, which causes more conservative members to go elsewhere to pursue their conservative traditions."
Growing up amongst the Amish and Mennonites I find this documentary particularly interesting. The interesting thing about Lancaster, PA (Amish capital of the world, and unfortunately the site of the Amish shootings last year) is that when the Amish sell their goods and deal in matters of commerce they use faxes, telephones, and the internet---just not out in the open---and it can't be housed on their property. Although against past traditions the Amish will always have a bit more self-control than us dependent constantly on technology.