Disorder

Huang Weikai's Disorder will be screened at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

As part of YBCA’s “Fearless” Series, Disorder will be screening at 2 PM on April 21.

Disorder (dir. Huang Weikai)

Huang Weikai’s one-of-a-kind news documentary captures, with remarkable freedom, the anarchy, violence, and seething anxiety animating China’s major cities today. As urbanization in China advances at a breakneck pace, Chinese cities teeter on the brink of mayhem. One man dances in the middle of traffic while another tries to jump from a bridge before dozens of onlookers. Pigs run wild on a highway while dignitaries swim in a polluted river. These scenes, unshowable on China’s heavily controlled television networks reect an emerging underground media, one that can truly capture the ground-level upheaval of Chinese society. Hua Hsu of The Atlantic calls it “one of the most mesmerizing films I’ve seen in ages“.

Tickets for the screening are $7 for general admission and $5 for seniors, students, and teachers. Gallery admission is included in ticket price. Tickets can be purchased online here. For directions and more detailed pricing information, visit the YBCA website.

YBCA’s “Fearless” series is a collection of the most compelling, politically engaged documentary cinema in the world right now is coming from China. Totally under the radar, with low/no budgets and little/no hope of their work being shown in their own country, filmmakers are using inexpensive digital technology to tell stories that would never otherwise be told. This is not easy stuff — the films tend to be long, and often depict human rights abuses, stories of chaos and neglect, and of state-sanctioned deception. It is a deeply committed cinema, which expects no less from the viewer.