Film Screenings / Programs / Series
CINEMA ON THE EDGE: THE BEST OF THE BEIJING INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL 2012-14
August 7 – August 13
Independent cinema in China is definitely “on the edge,” and these days it’s frequently forbidden. Independent films, i.e., those without government permission to be screened, can only exist on the margins in China. Commercial theaters are inaccessible without government approval, and screenings in cafes and art galleries can’t fill the gap. Independent film festivals like Beijing’s BIFF provided a vital platform, by screening films made by the most enterprising and aesthetically (and sometimes politically) risk-taking filmmakers to hungry and engaged audiences. But in 2012, the Chinese government began clamping down on “unauthorized” film festivals. Last year, BIFF was met with police force and prevented from screening anything. But the festival and its organizers, indomitable, refuse to be intimidated. We have curated a selection of the best of BIFF from the last three years: brilliant, sometimes challenging, always eye-opening cinema that tells new Chinese stories with brave, innovative, and inspired cinematic language. This selection from BIFF’s programs highlights an exuberant kind of experimentalism, a search for new language in the face of China’s bewildering variety of new realities, expressed in documentary, fictional, and short film modes. Experience the delight of encountering a cinema on the vanguard, one that speaks with an urgency and confidence impossible to ignore.
Curated by Shelly Kraicer and produced by Karin Chien.
