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Featured Program
Little Red Flowers (Kan shang qu hen mei)
Directed by Zhang Yuan November 7, 7:30 pm, November 11, 10:00 am Four-year-old Qiang is sent to a kindergarten boarding school not long after the 1949 liberation. After failed attempts to win the coveted red flowers doled out for good behavior, he turns to rebellion. With Qiang’s trials and tribulations serving as a microcosm of the confusion and conformity in... read more » |
Regis Dialogues and Film Retrospectives
Joel and Ethan Coen: Raising Cain
Dialogue: Joel and Ethan Coen September 18 - October 17, 2009 “It’s probable that most filmmakers love making movies, but few of them express this love with such voracious, crazy ardor. The brothers are a pair of brilliant oxymorons: shaggy-dog formalists, at once obsessed with every detail and apt to let their stories run wild.” —A.O. Scott,... |
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Walker Channel
 Mike Leigh Regis Dialogue with Scott Foundas Wednesday, October 15, 2008  Meet iconoclastic British director Mike Leigh in conversation with LA Weekly film critic Scott Foundas. Presented in conjunction with the film retrospective Mike Leigh: Moments read more » In The Shop
Bits & Pieces Put Together to Present a Semblance of a Whole: Walker Art Center CollectionsA primer on contemporary art, the Walker’s new catalogue captures the institution’s multidisciplinary history and reflects many of its commissions and extensive collections of paintings, sculptures, prints, photography, design, film/video, new media, and performing arts. The 616-page volume includes some 350 artist entries coauthored by the Walker’s curators and alumni as well as contributions from a select group of novelists, poets, and critics. $45 ($40.50 Walker members). read more » Related Film/Video Links
Department Information Widely recognized for presenting a full-range of moving-image art forms, the Walker Art Center’s film and video programs feature both contemporary and historical works. In the 1940s, the Walker quickly identified moving images (mostly movies, but also experimental films) as integral to... read more » |
Blog
60 Years of China on FilmJesikah Ruehle Tue, 03 Nov 2009  Still from Good Cats (Hao Mao), 2008 As attested by the remarkably choreographed festivities at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese know how to party—and nothing was spared for the recent celebration of the People’s Republic of China 60th Anniversary party on October 1, with special attention paid to showcasing military strength. This momentous occasion marks the longest Communist party rule in history, and although the last 60 years have been met with much criticism and unease, and marked by intense economic, political, and cultural growing pains, China’s unique blend of communism and capitalism is undeniably large and here to stay. Chinese filmmakers (those both inside and outside of the border) are in a unique position to process and reflect their current cultural moment. Many different Chinese film programs around the world are running this fall to celebrate and recognize these filmmakers and this unique and important time in history, including our own film series, The People’s Republic of Cinema which runs November 4-23. In the scheme of things, 60 years is a drop in the bucket for China’s immense history as one of the oldest civilizations on the planet, but the transformations the “New China” has undertaken are radical on a global scale. The process of modernizing an ancient culture coupled with an inflexible political climate, an environmental crisis, a growing consumerist culture, the tension between Eastern and Western values, a construction zone taking over every major city, and a new generation striving for individualism and creative freedom present enormous challenges. I experienced this first hand in 2006 on a study trip through the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Spending time with Beijing and Shanghai art students, hip-hop artists, and filmmakers allowed a privileged glimpse into the tensions they experience and make work about. I met some boys in Shanghai who strongly identified with American hip-hop and had started a group that traveled throughout southern China and rapped in Mandarin, Japanese, and English. (Most of the music they knew about had come through Japan, as the Japanese have an easier time finding American music and have been interested in hip-hop culture and paraphernalia for quite some time now.) The 021Crew, as they call themselves, recognize the challenges referenced in hip-hop music (the struggle for self-expression, distrust of government transparency, freedom, individualism, social and class distinctions, and the tension between generations) as parallel to their own. A few of them had studied abroad in Toronto and London, and were presented with new visions of China then the ones they had grown up with. None of them knew about the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 (it is impossible to find information about this when in China, as it is a restricted online search), nor did they feel comfortable discussing it in public. In fact, after learning about it, they said, “That’s not my China!” And although they felt extreme pride in their country, they longed to experience different freedoms they felt were denied them. Through hip-hop they are able to express themselves and their ideas in ways they couldn’t otherwise. To them, it is a platform of revolution, but the difference is the prescribed action. As language and the written word are the embodiments of knowledge and the foundation of Chinese culture (traditionally, at least), I wonder if in some strange way Chinese hip-hop is an attempt to be a contemporary equivalent. My Chinese painting professor who led the trip had grown up in a much different China. In fact, as a young boy he had left school to become part of the Red Guard and march all over southern China with other boys his age. The changes he has seen in his lifetime, although subjective and unique, chart the transformations (I struggle to use the word progress) many have experienced on a large scale. Here is a list of some other festivals celebrating and recognizing the “New China,” and although there probably won’t be fireworks or choreographed parades, I hope you can make it out. The People’s Republic of Cinema Walker Art Center Minneapolis, MN November 4-23, 2009 http://calendar.walkerart.org/canopy.wac?id=5308 China Independent Film Festival RCM Museum of Modern Art Nanjing, China October 12-16, 2009 http://www.chinaiff.org/html/EN/ LENS ON CHINA Portland Art Museum Northwest Film Center Portland, Oregon September 24-November 5, 2009 http://www.nwfilm.org/screenings/21/207/#1379 NYFF Masterworks: (Re)Inventing China New York City September 26 – October 6, 2009 http://filmlinc.com/nyff/china.html China Classic Film Festival Confucius Institute, University of Wales Lampeter Wales October 1-31, 2009 http://www.chinaclassicfestival.com/ 2009 Tokyo China Film Festival Tokyo International Film Festival Tokyo October 18-25, 2009 http://www.tiff-jp.net/en/lineup/title_24.html New Zealand Chinese Film Festival New Zealand’s Pacific Culture and Arts Exchange Center New Zealand October 15- November 8, 2009 http://www.nzcta.co.nz/events/
FILMING EAST FESTIVAL British Academy of Film and Television Arts UK October 3-31, 2009 www.bafta.org/whats-on/global-spotlight-china,828,BA.html RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL UK-China Film Association (UCFA) London October 3-10, 2009 http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/index.php?aid=3797 VISIBLE SECRETS: HONG KONG’S WOMEN FILMMAKERS Cornerhouse Manchester, England October 9 -November 3, 2009 www.cornerhouse.org/visiblesecrets ______________________________________________________ Jesikah Ruehle bio: +Loves being an intern in Film/Video at the Walker +Graduated last year from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA in Fiber and Material Studies and Film/Video +Loves to ride her bike and experiment in the kitchen +Is a hairstylist at FIVETWOSIX salon in St. Paul +Some of her favorite filmmakers are Chris Marker, Shirin Neshat, Doug Aitken, and Stan Brakhage +Is an escapist and consequently spends a lot of her free time looking up places to travel to Articles
 In the Realm of Oshima The Films of Japanese Master Nagisa Oshima James Quandt October 2008 Much parsed and puzzled over, Shohei Imamura’s famous pronouncement, “I’m a country farmer; Nagisa Oshima is a samurai” may be ambiguous in tone and intent – is it ironic, invidious, deferential? – but it emphasizes the directors’ differences: class, stylistic, and otherwise. Often paired as... read more » Ruben Film and Video Study Collection
 Rose Hobart Joseph Cornell 1936 16mm film (tinted, sound); footage appropriated from Universal Picture's East of Borneo (1931); 19 minutes Joseph Cornell’s reputation as a visual artist is founded on his collages and box constructions, yet it is possible that his greatest influence on art was as a filmmaker. Despite the fact that Cornell was not prolific and screenings of his films were relatively rare, they reached an audience that... read more » |