A food safety factory shutdown has Americans hunting for baby formula. Readying themselves for a covid-19 lockdown, Chinese in Beijing emptied store shelves. Emerging from lockdown, some in Shanghai are visiting well-provisioned markets. U.S.-China agricultural trade is booming, but many are still being left hungry. Food security, sustainability and safety remain issues.
Far from Beijing: The State of Independent Chinese Cinema
REDCAT will screen two new documentaries that attest to the growing decentralization of Chinese independent film to the farther reaches of the country.
Where

“Cha Fang challenges the bounds of documentation and critique, revealing how these can be one and the same in the hands of a skilled political artist.” —Senses of Cinema
Two startling new documentaries attest to the growing decentralization of Chinese independent film to the farther reaches of the country. In Cha Fang (The Questioning, 2013, digital video, 21 min.), producer, festival programmer and distributor Zhu Rikun expands the seminal role he has played in independent cinema by turning filmmaker; his camera records an absurd hotel room confrontation with police during a visit with human rights activists in southeastern Jiangxi Province. In Yumen (2013, 16mm transferred to HD, 65 min.), J.P. Sniadecki of the Sensory Ethnography Lab teams with artist-filmmakers Xu Ruotao and Huang Xiang for an uncanny expressionist portrait of a largely abandoned oil-drilling town in the highlands of northwestern Gansu Province. The directors describe the work as “a fragmented tale of hungry souls and restless youth, bringing together narrative gesture, performance art and socialist realism into a crude and radiant collage.”
In person: J.P. Sniadecki
Organized in collaboration with Los Angeles Filmforum.
Curated by Steve Anker and Bérénice Reynaud.
Date/Time G M/ST CA
MON 2/10
8:30 pm $10 $8 $5
G - General Audience
M - REDCAT Members
ST - Students
CA - CalArts Students/Faculty/Staff
CLICK HERE to purchase tickets online or call the REDCAT box office at 213-237-2800.
Featured Articles
European views toward China are not uniform. Europeans recognize China's economic prowess and clearly favor continued ties, but majorities in much of Europe now have a negative view towards China.
Events
Tensions evident in the recent European Union-China virtual summit reflect the increasing skepticism in Europe toward China and the worries over Ukraine and economic ties as well as human rights and environmental issues.