MCLC: Sydney Film Fest 2014

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Shelly Kraicer <shellyk at me.com>
Subject: Sydney Film Fest 2014
***********************************************************

I’m a guest curator this year at the 2014 Sydney Film Festival (4-15 June
http://www.sff.org.au <http://www.sff.org.au/>).

I”ve programmed a spotlight on mainland Chinese cinema, called China:
Rebels, Ghosts, and Romantics. I've tried to do something a bit different
from the usual festival selection: this is a compact overview showcasing
the broadest range of Chinese cinema creativity (within an 8 film
programme). We've got feature films, glossy and indie; and documentaries,
epic and intimate.

My intro for the catalogue is as follows:

China continues to be one of the most compulsively fascinating countries
on the planet: it’s not an exaggeration to suggest that China’s future may
very well be our future. Chinese movies lay out spellbinding ways to try
to grasp that country’s complexities, its unfathomable beauty and its
ongoing problems.

We’ve selected the widest variety possible of the best new Chinese films.
We offer the glossy commercial hit Up in the Wind’s pointed examination of
middle-class anxieties; homespun indie doc Beijing Ants’ ground- level
view of marginal urban existence; Dancing in the Room’s romantic but
blackly comic take on youthful boredom; Mothers’ nuanced look at
bureaucracy; Lake August’s starkly beautiful portrait of death and love in
the hinterlands; and ’Til Madness Do Us Part’s epic ode to passions that
thrive in the remotest corners of the state. In SFF's Official
Competition, the noir-mystery- arthouse mashup of passion and murder Black
Coal Thin Ice landed it the prestigious Golden Bear at this year's
Berlinale. Chinese cinema offers unlimited delights: its rebels, ghosts
and romantics come to life through its screens to our imaginations.

Shelly Kraicer,  Guest Programmer

BEIJING ANTS (北京蚂蚁), d. Ryuji Otsuka
DANCING IN THE ROOM (房间里的舞蹈), d. Peng Lei
LAKE AUGUST (那片湖水), d. Yang Heng
MOTHERS (妈妈的村庄), d. Xu Huijing
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF FENFEN, d. Leslie Tai
'TIL MADNESS DO US PART (疯爱), d. Wang Bing
UP IN THE WIND (等风来) d. Teng Huatao

And we have Diao Yi'nan's BLACK COAL THIN ICE (白日焰火) in the Sydney FF
official competition.

Details, photos, and in some cases trailers are all here, at the SFF 2014
website for the series.

http://www.sff.org.au/public/films/program/china-rebels,-ghosts-and-romanti
cs/

cheers

Shelly