The modern pervasiveness of surveillance technology causes an unfamiliar type of cognitive dissonance where their use is collectively recognized but an innate fear of privacy lost has been pushed into the subconscious. Whether it’s security cameras posted in neighborhood bodegas, webcams affixed to almost every laptop made after 2010, or the increasing appearance of dash cams, nestled inside vehicles that can capture either the pure mundanity of the metropolitan commute or the underlying tension of it mortally barreling out of control: they’re watching, and the rapid proliferation of public-monitoring equipment makes it hard to tell who “they” are — if anybody — or why they bother to watch in the first place. Chinese visual artist Xu Bing, whose previous work includes a calligraphic book and installation piece, Tianshu, that deconstructs the logical patterns we associate with language — in this case, interpreting 4,000 nonsense characters designed to look like Mandarin — boldly approaches the...
- 10/16/2017
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
The following essay was produced as part of the 2017 Locarno Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring film critics that took place during the 70th edition of the Locarno Film Festival.
Two Chinese independent films—Wang Bing’s Golden Leopard-winning “Mrs. Fang” and Xu Bing’s “Dragonfly Eyes”— competed for the Golden Leopard at this year’s Locarno International Film Festival (both played Tiff a few weeks later). Wang and Xu are established names whose works speak to the intersection between cinema and contemporary art. Both of their films belong to the category of experimental/conceptual documentary, and together they provide distinctive windows into contemporary Chinese society. At the same time, the differences between them couldn’t be any greater. They are formal opposites: when handling images of the real, Wang is minimalist, and abstinent, austere, while Xu is maximalist, provocative and melodramatic.
Commissioned by Documenta 14 and originally conceived as a video art piece,...
Two Chinese independent films—Wang Bing’s Golden Leopard-winning “Mrs. Fang” and Xu Bing’s “Dragonfly Eyes”— competed for the Golden Leopard at this year’s Locarno International Film Festival (both played Tiff a few weeks later). Wang and Xu are established names whose works speak to the intersection between cinema and contemporary art. Both of their films belong to the category of experimental/conceptual documentary, and together they provide distinctive windows into contemporary Chinese society. At the same time, the differences between them couldn’t be any greater. They are formal opposites: when handling images of the real, Wang is minimalist, and abstinent, austere, while Xu is maximalist, provocative and melodramatic.
Commissioned by Documenta 14 and originally conceived as a video art piece,...
- 9/14/2017
- by Zoe Meng Jiang
- Indiewire
The feature debut by Chinese artist Xu Bing, Dragonfly Eyes, carved out ot 10 000 of authentic and freely-circulated found footage possess equal degree of being disturbing as being fascinating contributing to the advancing aesthetics of post-humanism.
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 8/29/2017
- Screen Anarchy
Every year, the New York Film Festival descends upon the city’s most passionate cinephiles, bringing flashy world premieres and giving New Yorkers a chance to finally see films they’ve been salivating over since Cannes. For the experimentally minded, the Convergence series is a chance to explore immersive storytelling such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and interactive multimedia projects with an eye on the future.
Read More:Massive Robert Mitchum Centenary Tribute Set As Nyff 2017 Retrospective — Exclusive
The sixth edition of the annual program announces its full slate today, including three Vr horror experiences from Dark Corner Studios, a Vr documentary series exploring the lives of Pakistani citizens from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and a game about sci-fi hallucinations from Tender Claws. In addition, Nyff is partnering with Lucasfilm to premiere their new virtual production technology with a public presentation. The never-before-seen technology harnesses the power of Vr as...
Read More:Massive Robert Mitchum Centenary Tribute Set As Nyff 2017 Retrospective — Exclusive
The sixth edition of the annual program announces its full slate today, including three Vr horror experiences from Dark Corner Studios, a Vr documentary series exploring the lives of Pakistani citizens from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and a game about sci-fi hallucinations from Tender Claws. In addition, Nyff is partnering with Lucasfilm to premiere their new virtual production technology with a public presentation. The never-before-seen technology harnesses the power of Vr as...
- 8/25/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
To the credit of the Locarno Festival, the films in the 2017 selection don’t waste time trying to tell universal stories that transcend their time and place. Falling in love varies depending on the social conditions behind it, as Xu Bing’s found-footage film “Dragonfly Eyes” aptly proves, while weaving a story about obsession and surveillance in contemporary China. Similarly, working in a mine in Serbia has a wholly different routine than mining for gold in Suriname, as Ben Russell’s latest documentary “Good Luck” takes its time to show. Even something as widespread as the notion of the work/life balance varies considerably in films from Locarno coming from different parts of the world and set in different milieus, and enough of these films either circumvent or contradict traditional depictions of the home.
It’s telling that new films in which the home is a sooth place are either...
It’s telling that new films in which the home is a sooth place are either...
- 8/24/2017
- by Irina Trocan
- Indiewire
The 55th New York Film Festival will debut a starry roster of documentaries featuring giants of the art and literary worlds as well as Alex Gibney’s postponed “No Stone Unturned,” a critical investigation into the 1994 Loughinisland massacre in Ireland, which was pulled from Tribeca in April.
Other new works include films from directors Abel Ferrara, Sara Driver, Nancy Buirski, Mathieu Amalric, and Barbet Schroeder; Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut “Sea Sorrow,” which played at Cannes; and films featuring Joan Didion, Arthur Miller, Gay Talese, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jane Goodall, plus stories about racism, American immigration, and the global refugee crisis.
Three documentaries spotlight acclaimed writers, including the world premiere of Griffin Dunne’s “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” returning Nyff filmmaker Rebecca Miller’s tender portrait of her father, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” and the World Premiere of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s “Voyeur,” tracking journalist Gay Talese...
Other new works include films from directors Abel Ferrara, Sara Driver, Nancy Buirski, Mathieu Amalric, and Barbet Schroeder; Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut “Sea Sorrow,” which played at Cannes; and films featuring Joan Didion, Arthur Miller, Gay Talese, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jane Goodall, plus stories about racism, American immigration, and the global refugee crisis.
Three documentaries spotlight acclaimed writers, including the world premiere of Griffin Dunne’s “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” returning Nyff filmmaker Rebecca Miller’s tender portrait of her father, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” and the World Premiere of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s “Voyeur,” tracking journalist Gay Talese...
- 8/23/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The 55th New York Film Festival will debut a starry roster of documentaries featuring giants of the art and literary worlds as well as Alex Gibney’s postponed “No Stone Unturned,” a critical investigation into the 1994 Loughinisland massacre in Ireland, which was pulled from Tribeca in April.
Other new works include films from directors Abel Ferrara, Sara Driver, Nancy Buirski, Mathieu Amalric, and Barbet Schroeder; Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut “Sea Sorrow,” which played at Cannes; and films featuring Joan Didion, Arthur Miller, Gay Talese, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jane Goodall, plus stories about racism, American immigration, and the global refugee crisis.
Three documentaries spotlight acclaimed writers, including the world premiere of Griffin Dunne’s “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” returning Nyff filmmaker Rebecca Miller’s tender portrait of her father, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” and the World Premiere of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s “Voyeur,” tracking journalist...
Other new works include films from directors Abel Ferrara, Sara Driver, Nancy Buirski, Mathieu Amalric, and Barbet Schroeder; Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut “Sea Sorrow,” which played at Cannes; and films featuring Joan Didion, Arthur Miller, Gay Talese, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jane Goodall, plus stories about racism, American immigration, and the global refugee crisis.
Three documentaries spotlight acclaimed writers, including the world premiere of Griffin Dunne’s “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” returning Nyff filmmaker Rebecca Miller’s tender portrait of her father, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” and the World Premiere of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s “Voyeur,” tracking journalist...
- 8/23/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
55th New York Film Festival Projections choices announced by Anne-Katrin Titze - 2017-08-19 22:50:10
Leviathan directors Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel's latest, Caniba, will screen in the 55th New York Film Festival Projections program Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the 55th New York Film Festival Projections selections, which run from October 6 to October 9. The programme will screen eight feature films, including Kevin Jerome Everson's Tonsler Park, Neïl Beloufa's Occidental, Narimane Mari's Le Fort Des Fous, Rosalind Nashashibi's Vivian’s Garden, Xu Bing's Dragonfly Eyes, Luke Fowler's Electro-Pythagoras (A Portrait Of Martin Bartlett), Ben Russell's Good Luck, and Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor's Caniba. Zhou Tao's 48-minute The Worldly Cave will be shown on loop at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Amphitheater over the four days of Projections. There will also be eight programs of shorts and the newly restored work of Barbara Hammer and Mike Henderson preserved by the Academy Film Archive.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the 55th New York Film Festival Projections selections, which run from October 6 to October 9. The programme will screen eight feature films, including Kevin Jerome Everson's Tonsler Park, Neïl Beloufa's Occidental, Narimane Mari's Le Fort Des Fous, Rosalind Nashashibi's Vivian’s Garden, Xu Bing's Dragonfly Eyes, Luke Fowler's Electro-Pythagoras (A Portrait Of Martin Bartlett), Ben Russell's Good Luck, and Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor's Caniba. Zhou Tao's 48-minute The Worldly Cave will be shown on loop at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Amphitheater over the four days of Projections. There will also be eight programs of shorts and the newly restored work of Barbara Hammer and Mike Henderson preserved by the Academy Film Archive.
- 8/19/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has the complete lineup for its Projections section of the 55th New York Film Festival, which will unspool October 6 – 9. The year’s slate is comprised of eight features and eight shorts programs, each designed to present “an international selection of film and video work that expands upon our notions of what the moving image can do and be.” Each year, the Projections section of the festival seeks out innovative new films told in unique and often experimental new ways, and 2017 seems to be no different.
“Projections is the New York Film Festival’s home for adventurous work, and our 2017 lineup attests to the sheer number and variety of ways in which our most vital artists are exploring the possibilities of cinematic language,” said Dennis Lim, Fslc Director of Programming and one of the curators of Projections. “We’ve extended the program by a day this year,...
“Projections is the New York Film Festival’s home for adventurous work, and our 2017 lineup attests to the sheer number and variety of ways in which our most vital artists are exploring the possibilities of cinematic language,” said Dennis Lim, Fslc Director of Programming and one of the curators of Projections. “We’ve extended the program by a day this year,...
- 8/17/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Actual live streams and webcam and CCTV footage are stitched together to support a rather eccentric narrative in Dragonfly Eyes (Qing Ting zhi yan), the directorial debut from Chinese artist Xu Bing. The project is conceptually interesting, with Xu relying mainly on voiceovers to create a semi-coherent story that links together the many disparate shots of people and places from all over China (if anything, it becomes clear that everyone in the Middle Kingdom is constantly being watched, albeit often in grainy, pixelated images). But the narrative that Xu’s two screenwriters have concocted — about a young woman who escapes...
- 8/15/2017
- by Boyd van Hoeij
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Update: Audience award winner revealed; Good Manners, Winter Brothers also among winners.
Documentary filmmaker Wang Bing became the fifth director from China in Locarno’s seven-decade history to win the top honour of the Golden Leopard at this year’s edition.
Mrs. Fang, which is the first documentray ever to win the festival’s top prize, follows the last days of a 67-year-old Alzheimer’s patient in southern China.
Previous Golden Leopard winners from China were Hongqui Li with Winter Vacation in 2010 and Xiaolu Guo with She, a Chinese a year before, as well as Shuo Wang with Father in 2000 and Yue Lü with Mr Zhao in 1998.
The decision by the international competition jury, headed by director Olivier Assayas, reflects a trend at international festivals of recent years for documentaries beating out competition from fiction productions.
While the special jury prize went to the Brazilian writing and directing team Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra’s Good Manners about...
Documentary filmmaker Wang Bing became the fifth director from China in Locarno’s seven-decade history to win the top honour of the Golden Leopard at this year’s edition.
Mrs. Fang, which is the first documentray ever to win the festival’s top prize, follows the last days of a 67-year-old Alzheimer’s patient in southern China.
Previous Golden Leopard winners from China were Hongqui Li with Winter Vacation in 2010 and Xiaolu Guo with She, a Chinese a year before, as well as Shuo Wang with Father in 2000 and Yue Lü with Mr Zhao in 1998.
The decision by the international competition jury, headed by director Olivier Assayas, reflects a trend at international festivals of recent years for documentaries beating out competition from fiction productions.
While the special jury prize went to the Brazilian writing and directing team Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra’s Good Manners about...
- 8/12/2017
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Early August is usually a transitional moment, when the summer movie season winds down to set the stage for the fall, and most moviegoers are catching up on highlights from the last few weeks. But for a few thousand people attending the Locarno Film Festival, a whole new set of discoveries await.
The Swiss festival is one of the major European film events of the summer, offering a range of new titles that encompass multiple genres and national cinemas, many of which will go on to play at other big festivals later this year. Here’s a look at some of the most promising films in this year’s lineup; expect to hear more about them in the near future. (Stay tuned for more essays on this year’s lineup from participants in the 2017 Locarno Critics Academy.)
Read MoreLocarno Film Festival 2017: Enter to Win Free Online Festival Pass to...
The Swiss festival is one of the major European film events of the summer, offering a range of new titles that encompass multiple genres and national cinemas, many of which will go on to play at other big festivals later this year. Here’s a look at some of the most promising films in this year’s lineup; expect to hear more about them in the near future. (Stay tuned for more essays on this year’s lineup from participants in the 2017 Locarno Critics Academy.)
Read MoreLocarno Film Festival 2017: Enter to Win Free Online Festival Pass to...
- 8/2/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Ben & Joshua Safdie's Good TimeThe lineup for the 2017 festival has been revealed, including new films by Wang Bing, Radu Jude, Raúl Ruiz and others, alongside retrospectives and tributes dedicated to Jean-Marie Straub, Jacques Tourneur and much more.Piazza GRANDEAmori che non sonno stare al mondo (Francesca Comencini, Italy)Atomic Blonde (David Leitch, USA)Chien (Samuel Benchetrit, France/Belgium)Demain et tous les autres jours (Noémie Lvovsky, France)Drei Zinnen (Jan Zabeil, Germany/Italy)Good Time (Ben & Joshua Safdie, USA)Gotthard - One Life, One Soul (Kevin Merz, Switzerland)I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, USA)Iceman (Felix Randau, Germany/Italy/Austria)Laissez bronzer les cadavres (Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, Belgium/France)Lola Pater (Nadir Moknèche, France/Belgium)Sicilia! (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, Italy/France/Germany)Sparring (Samuel Jouy, France)The Big Sick (Michael Showalter, USA)The Song of Scorpions (Anup Singh, Switzerland/France/Singapore)What Happed to Monday (Tommy Wirkola,...
- 7/12/2017
- MUBI
Atomic Blonde, The Big Sick, The Song Of Scorpions among line-up.
The line-up for the 70th Locarno Festival (Aug 2-12) in Switzerland has been announced.
Scroll down for the full line-up
The 16-strong Piazza Grande strand features 11 world premieres, including opening night film Tomorrow And Every Other Day directed by Noemie Lvovsky and starring Mathieu Amalric, and closing night music doc Gotthard - One Life, One Soul, about the swiss rock band.
Other Piazza Grande films include Atomic Blonde with Charlize Theron, Good Time starring Robert Pattinson, Kumail Nanjiani’s The Big Sick, What Happened to Monday? with Glenn Close and the world premiere of Anup Singh’s The Song of Scorpions, starring Irrfan Khan, who will attend the festival.
Actor and director Mathieu Kassovitz will receive the festival’s 2017 excellence award and Nastassja Kinski will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award.
Michel Merkt (Toni Erdmann, Elle) will receive the festival’s best independent producer award.
As...
The line-up for the 70th Locarno Festival (Aug 2-12) in Switzerland has been announced.
Scroll down for the full line-up
The 16-strong Piazza Grande strand features 11 world premieres, including opening night film Tomorrow And Every Other Day directed by Noemie Lvovsky and starring Mathieu Amalric, and closing night music doc Gotthard - One Life, One Soul, about the swiss rock band.
Other Piazza Grande films include Atomic Blonde with Charlize Theron, Good Time starring Robert Pattinson, Kumail Nanjiani’s The Big Sick, What Happened to Monday? with Glenn Close and the world premiere of Anup Singh’s The Song of Scorpions, starring Irrfan Khan, who will attend the festival.
Actor and director Mathieu Kassovitz will receive the festival’s 2017 excellence award and Nastassja Kinski will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award.
Michel Merkt (Toni Erdmann, Elle) will receive the festival’s best independent producer award.
As...
- 7/12/2017
- by orlando.parfitt@screendaily.com (Orlando Parfitt)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Indie-focused company debuts at festival with four films on slate.
Blackfin Productions’ Xie Meng and Wang Zijian have launched a Beijing-based sales company, Rediance, to grow the international market for Chinese independent films.
The new outfit is launching at the Shanghai International Film Festival (Siff) with a debut slate of four projects, including Geng Jun’s Manchurian Tiger, which has been selected for Siff’s film financing platform, Siff Project.
Produced by Blackfin, the film is a dark comedy about a man seeking revenge against people who owe him money. Geng previously directed Free And Easy, which won a...
Blackfin Productions’ Xie Meng and Wang Zijian have launched a Beijing-based sales company, Rediance, to grow the international market for Chinese independent films.
The new outfit is launching at the Shanghai International Film Festival (Siff) with a debut slate of four projects, including Geng Jun’s Manchurian Tiger, which has been selected for Siff’s film financing platform, Siff Project.
Produced by Blackfin, the film is a dark comedy about a man seeking revenge against people who owe him money. Geng previously directed Free And Easy, which won a...
- 6/22/2017
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
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