MCLC: Chinatown on Screen

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Xin Zhou <xin.zhou66 at gmail.com>
Subject: Chinatown on Screen
***********************************************************

My name is Xin Zhou, curator and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. I wanted to
share with you a film series about New York's Chinatown on Screen, which I
put together with video and media artists Lynne Sachs and Bo Wang and
curator/critic Lesley Yiping Qin.

Many thanks,
Xin Zhou 
zhouxin.co <http://zhouxin.co/>

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​WE LANDED / I WAS BORN / PASSING BY
NEW YORK’S CHINATOWN ON SCREEN
January 24 – January 26, 2014
ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES

落地/出生/經過：紐約華埠影像 
2014年1月24日至26日  電影文集檔案館

Whether you see Chinatown as a place or a state of mind, a purgatory or an
oasis, a shrinking immigrant community or an expanding business district,
its presence in our cinematic imagination is enormous. Situated north of
NYC’s Wall Street, east of the Tombs, west of the old Jewish Ghetto, and
mostly south of Canal, the neighborhood that began in the mid-19th century
has maintained its distinct character – savory, hardscrabble, succulent,
and cacophonous.

WE LANDED/I WAS BORN/PASSING BY explores a provocative array of images of
the community from the 1940s to the present day. By embracing the
perspectives of grassroots activists, performance artists, conceptual
visionaries, home-movie makers, punk horror devotees, and journalists, the
series raises questions about how we look at the neighborhood and how its
representations have reciprocally shaped our imagination. Who lived in
Chinatown at the beginning? Who lives there now? How and why has it
changed? What language best describes Chinatown? Whose voices do we hear?

Inspired by the fabulously observant 1960s poetry of Chinatown’s very own
Frances Chung, this 5-part film series looks at the streets, desires,
shops, and struggles of an iconic community that only begins to reveal its
stories when the most obvious outer layers are pulled back. Comprised of
documentaries, archival footage, home videos, literary readings,
photography, and performance, the series rings in Chinese New Year by
opening a window to both early and contemporary conditions. Through it
all, geography, memory, and observation compress and expand the imaginary
and the real of this beloved section of the Big Apple.

Curated by Lesley Yiping Qin, Lynne Sachs, Bo Wang, and Xin Zhou.

Reception: Sat, Jan 25 7:15pm, in the lobby of Anthology Film Archives.

Anthology Film Archives | 32 Second Ave, New York, NY 10003 | (212)
505-5181 <tel:%28212%29%20505-5181>
Press Contact: Ava Tews, ava at anthologyfilmarchives.org

Visit Anthology Film Archives Website
<http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/series/42109> and Join
Us on Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/events/235198803325479/>

WE LANDED / I WAS BORN / PASSING BY: NEW YORK'S CHINATOWN ON SCREEN
PROGRAM DETAILS

Fri, Jan 24 7:30pm | PROGRAM 1: TWO COLD NIGHTS IN NEW YORK CHINATOWN
1月24日（週五）晚7:30 ｜ 影片集1：紐約華埠之兩個寒夜 Part of the Chinatown Film
Project 
commissioned by the Museum of Chinese in America, Jem Cohen’s NIGHT SCENE
IN NEW YORK is a close nocturnal observation of the people and lights of
this urban milieu. In contrast to Cohen’s beautifully shot yet vernacular
street scenes, conceptual artist Gordon Matta-Clark’s black-and-white
video work expresses a more distant gaze on the Chinatown community,
offering an ambivalent and imaginary take on the same cityscape. VOYEUR
CHINATOWN (1971) Dir. Gordon Matta-Clark | NIGHT SCENE NEW YORK (2009)
Dir. Jem Cohen | A reading from Crazy Melon and Chinese Apple: The Poems
of Frances Chung.

Sat, Jan 25 6:00pm | PROGRAM 2: THE TOUCH OF AN EYE
1月25日（週六）晚6:00 ｜ 影片集2：視線的觸覺
The view from above – the bird’s eye view – can be omniscient and
detached, playful and wicked. Shelly Silver’s TOUCH, a restrained yet
endlessly sensual ciné-essay on loss and presence, takes us on a journey
that begins with the psyche of an enigmatic son who returns as both
insider and outsider to a Chinatown from which he escaped. Celebrated
1960s community activist Tom Tam also shot irrepressibly inventive
experimental films of the world he fought so hard to defend. Tam’s
pixilated glimpse of a boy on a roof gives voice to a child’s sense of
flight and the realization that he will never have wings. BOY ON CHINATOWN
ROOF (1970s) Dir. Tom Tam | TOUCH (2013) Dir. Shelly Silver. Followed by a
reception. 

Sat, Jan 25 8:00pm | PROGRAM 3: CHINATOWN PROBLEMATICS
1月25日（週六）晚8:00 ｜ 影片集3：華埠問題考
How can realities be engaged if the idea of a place has already been
mediated by a sense of otherness and displacement? It all began with the
name “Chinatown”, a specific place that can be found in many cities of the
world. THE TROUBLE WITH CHINATOWN, originally aired on WNBC in the 1970s
was a survey of social and educational problems. A 2013 CNN “exposé” on
the “dirty, dangerous firetrap” at 81 Bowery Street sparked the eviction
of the tenants who couldn’t afford another place to live. The reactions
today can be linked to Tom Tam’s silent film TOURIST BUSES, GO HOME! that
protests against Chinatown tourism. Shelly Silver’s 5 LESSONS AND 9
QUESTIONS ABOUT CHINATOWN interweaves fragments of neighborhood lives with
questions of history, change, a sense of belonging and home. Followed by
an informal talk by photographer Corky Lee, an activist in the Asian and
Pacific American community for the past forty years.  WNBC-TV THE TROUBLE
WITH CHINATOWN (1970) Dir. Bill Turque | TOURIST BUSES, GO HOME! (1969)
Dir. Tom Tam | 5 LESSONS & 9 QUESTIONS ABOUT CHINATOWN (2011) Dir. Shelly
Silver | CNN report on 81 Bowery St: “Eviction & Protest” (2013) | Photos
and artist talk by Corky Lee.

Sun, Jan 26 5:00pm | PROGRAM 4: BOWERY STREET PLAYBILL
1月26日（週日）晚5:00 | 影片集4：包厘街戲單
Quotidian life is provoked and embodied in this eclectic playbill of
Chinatown. We begin with a quietly rueful look at the closing-down of
MUSIC PALACE, the last Chinatown movie theater on Bowery Street. In
contrast is MAKING CHINATOWN, a reenactment parody of Polanski’s CHINATOWN
and its profiling LA Chinatown as a lawless enclave. From the upfront
self-mocking of PAPER SON, to two lesbians munching fortune cookie
messages in I AM STARVING, to following grocery shoppers home for dinner
in THE TRAINED CHINESE TONGUE, everyday experiences constantly negotiate
the personal. Interspersed are two historical documentations of Chinese
New Years in the 40s and 60s. Chinatown-born photojournalist Alan Chin
will provide his vision of the neighborhood through his candid, sharply
rendered insider’s eye. MUSIC PALACE (2005) Dir. Eric Lin| MAKING
CHINATOWN Pt. 7 (2012) by Ming Wong | I AM STARVING (1998) Dir. Yau Ching
| THE TRAINED CHINESE TONGUE (1994) Dir. Laurie Wen | YEAR OF THE RAT
(1963) Dir. Jon Wing Lum | Photo slideshow by Alan Chin.

Sun, Jan 26 7:30pm | PROGRAM 5: A TIME OF TWO SQUARE MILES
1月26日（周日）晚7:30 | 影片集5：方圆二英里的時光

Mixing live readings and videos, this program investigates domestic and
public spaces in the two square miles of Chinatown. Shanghai-born
performance artist Jiaxin Miao carries his suitcase between Chinatown and
Zuccotti Park and then boldly sprays colors onto roast ducks. Galvanized
by flickering and fast forward motions, revered political activist Tom
Tam’s intimate camera work captures the communal life of a health fair in
Columbus Park. Lynne Sachs’ hybrid documentary is set in shift-bed rooms
in Chinatown where performers transform their everyday movements into
dance and are tenderly challenged to leave their shared, self-supporting
world. After traveling ten thousand miles to get here, what is it like to
go five miles further? Followed by readings of work by novelist Ha Jin and
poet Frances Chung, who belong to two different generations of
Chinese-American writers.  A reading of an excerpt by novelist Ha Jin |
CHINATOWN STREET FESTIVAL (1970s) Dir. Tom Tam | CHINAMAN’S SUITCASE
(2011) Featuring Jiaxin Miao | YOUR DAY IS MY NIGHT (2013) Dir. Lynne
Sachs | A reading by Paolo Javier of Frances Chung poetry. ​