The venue and schedule of the Chinese Retrospective have changed!
new venue: Cirko-gejzír cinema
schedule: November 8-9
detailed program
Important! Films are screened in original language with English subtitles.

Fragments of Chinese History

This year China has been in the limelight. But how much do we really know about the history of this large country? The Chinese retrospective of Verzio hosted by Örökmozgó Filmmúzeum will focus on China’s contemporary history. There is a short film in this year’s DOK Leipzig panorama that revisits a historical place and event. A Day to Remember returns to Tiananmen Square and the meaning of July 4, 2005 in China today. Director Lui Wei takes his camera to the square and asks people around – young and elderly, women and men – one single question: what day is it? Some do not seem to know that they are standing in the very place where the bloody massacre took place 16 years before. Most of them however simply refuse to remember anything, especially not on camera. 2008 is the 19th anniversary of the violent suppression of the students’ revolt in Tiananmen Square.

The documentary The Gate of Heavenly Peace (1995) reconstructs the background and history of these events. Directors Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon lived in China for many years and spent six years researching the 1989 protests. Their film, earning numerous awards all over the world, eventually comes to Budapest with a 13-year delay. Morning Sun (2003), a documentary made by the same filmmakers returns to the years of the Great Cultural Revolution launched 42 years ago. It investigates how the various areas of mass culture, such as film, theater, and the fine arts, became the means of political propaganda. Do take a look at the highly creative websites of the films http://www.tsquare.tv (The Gate of Heavenly Peace), http://www.morningsun.org (Morning Sun). These sites, offering many photos, articles and papers, are an excellent source of historical insight both for professionals and laymen. The China retrospective introduces two more brilliant works addressing the Great Cultural Revolution. Though I Am Gone and Red Art were made by independent filmmaker Hu Jie, currently living in London. The rare archival footage in these films provides a poignant and unique insight to the happenings of this historic decade. Last but not least In the Name of the Emperor offers a stunning yet terrifying close-up of the Shino-Japanese war. The selected films thus attempt to be a precious film contribution to our understanding of China’s contemporary history.

Vera Surányi
Curator of Retrospective Program

The program

In the Name of the Emperor
Christine Choy & Nancy Tong / USA / 1995 / 52 min / English & Japanese & Mandarin & Italian
In 1937, 300,000 people were killed and 20,000 women were raped and killed when Japanese troops invaded Nanjing, then the capital of China.

In 1937, 300,000 people were killed and 20,000 women were raped and then killed when Japanese troops invaded Nanjing (aka Nanking). In the name of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, the desperate soldiers, enraged by intense Chinese resistance, stormed the then capitol of China and over a six week period systematically raped, tortured, and killed many of the inhabitants of that city. Horrifyingly graphic footage, shot by an American missionary during the massacre at Nanjing, is combined with diaries and interviews with survivors as well as soldiers; the latter speak openly about their part in the killing, torture and rape. In the Name of the Emperor raises fundamental philosophical, psychological and ethical questions about the horrors of war.

producer: Nancy Tong
editor: Nanette Burstein, Dan Tun
camera: Christine Choy

sales info:
Linda Gottesman
Filmakers Library, Inc.
124 E 40th Street
NY, NY 10016
212-808-4980
linda@filmakers.com

selected filmography:
Christine Choy: Ha Ha Shanghai, 2001 / Electric Shadow, 1998

Morning Sun
Carma Hinton & Geremie R. Barmé & Richard Gordon / USA / 2003 / 117 min / English & Mandarin
The Chinese Cultural Revolution: the films and plays, music and ideas, rhetoric and ideologies, frustrations and fantasies, realities and ardor - all that a new revolution entailed.

Morning Sun is not a comprehensive or chronological history of the Cultural Revolution; nor is it a study of elite politics or student factionalism. It is rather a history of experiences and emotions as reflected upon by those who were at the core of the events. The director includes footage of victims and perpetrators of the period when Communist youth, inspired and encouraged by Mao Zedong, rebelled against their parents and teachers, and workers rebelled against their bosses. It is also a film about the language and style of the period— its films and plays, music and ideas, rhetoric and ideologies, frustrations and fantasies, as well as the realities and ardor, that a new revolution entailed.

producer: Carma Hinton, Geremie R. Barmé, Richard Gordon
editor: David Carnochan
camera: Richard Gordon
music: Mark Pevsner

production info:
Long Bow Group
55 Newton St.
Brookline, MA 02445 USA
Tel: 617/277-6400
Fax: 617/277-6843
info@longbow.org

selected filmography:
The Gate of Heavenly Peace, 1995 / Abode of Illusion, 1992 / First Moon, 1987 / One Village in China, 1987 / Stilt Dancers of Long Bow Village, 1981

Red Art
Hu Jie, Ai Xiaoming / China / 2007 / 70 min / Mandarin
Billboard art under Mao. How folk art was transformed by the political campaigns during the Cultural Revolution.

Under Mao's leadership, art was made to serve the "workers, peasants, soldiers, and the cause of socialism." Enormous amounts of artwork, including billboard-size paintings and mass-produced posters, were created to promote the Party's ideology. Two of China's most active independent documentary filmmakers talk to artists, including Liu Chunhua (who created the famous painting-turned-poster “Mao Goes to Anyuan”) about their work and participation in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and trace how folk art was transformed by the political campaigns. Other interview subjects include former Red Guards, academics, and collectors of Cultural Revolution relics and memorabilia, who discuss the significance of these works then and now.

producer: Hu Jie, Ai Xiaoming
editor: Hu Jie, Ai Xiaoming
camera: Hu Jie, Ai Xiaoming

production info:
Visible Record Ltd.
3/F, Foo Tak Building,
365 Hennessy Road,
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
tel: +(852) 2540 7859
www.visiblerecord.com

selected filmography:
Ai Xiaoming: Care and Love, 2007 / Garden in Heaven, 2005 / Tai Shi Village, 2005 / Painting for the Revolution, 2005 / Vagina Monologues: Stories from Behind the Scene, 2004
Hu Jie: In Search of Lin Zhou's Soul, 2004 / The Folk Song on the Plain, 1999 / Living by the Sea, 1999 / Remote Mountain, 1995

Though I am Gone
Hu Jie / China / 2006 / 68 min / Mandarin
Bian Zhongyun is believed to have been the first teacher victim killed by their students during the "Red August" of 1966 as the Cultural Revolution began in China. Her husband recalls the events.

Bian Zhongyun is believed to have been the first of the teachers murdered by their own students during the "Red August" of 1966 as the Cultural Revolution began in mainland China. The film depicts the event and shows how Bian’s relatives, students and colleagues experienced the terror. “After her death, Wang Jingyao took photos of his beloved wife with his own camera. The images of those tragic days have been preserved to this day. To those who lived through the devastation, this represents a unique example of memory. These photos serve as both witness and testimony. I thus ponder the power of a camera, the struggle to cover things up and the victory of one man's memory." (Hu Jie)

producer: Hu Jie

editor: Hu Jie camera: Hu Jie

production info:
Visible Record Ltd.
3/F, Foo Tak Building,
365 Hennessy Road,
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
tel: +(852) 2540 7859
www.visiblerecord.com

selected filmography:
In Search of Lin Zhou's Soul, 2004 / The Folk Song on the Plain, 1999 / Living by the Sea, 1999 / Woman Matchmaker, 1995 / Remote Mountain, 1995

Tiananmen: The Gate of Heavenly Peace
Carma Hinton & Richard Gordon / USA / 1995 / 150 min / English & Mandarin
Uniquely complex investigation of the protests at Tiananmen in 1989 and the resulting Beijing Massacre of June 4.

The Gate of Heavenly Peace is a documentary about the protests at Tiananmen in 1989, and the resulting Beijing Massacre of June 4. The film explores the history of the demonstrations and comments on the deep structure of political habits and attitudes that have informed public life in China over the past century. The filmmakers present a wide range of Chinese perspectives on a defining moment in China's modern history. Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon spent six years investigating the story of the 1989 protests, working together with international scholars and participants in the events. Many other key characters appear in archival and home video footage. A detailed review of the student protest movement, reflecting the drama, tension, humor, absurdity, heroism, and tragedy of the six weeks from April to June in 1989.

producer: Carma Hinton, Richard Gordon, Peter Kovler, Orville Schell, Lise Yasui
editor: David Carnochan
camera: Richard Gordon
music: Mark Pevsner

production info:
Long Bow Group
55 Newton St.
Brookline, MA 02445 USA
Tel: 617/277-6400
Fax: 617/277-6843
info@longbow.org

selected filmography:
The Gate of Heavenly Peace, 1995 / Abode of Illusion, 1992 / First Moon, 1987 / One Village in China, 1987 / Stilt Dancers of Long Bow Village, 1981