The inaugural edition of the three-week bicoastal showcase of Chinese cinema brings two evenings of eye-opening animated and live-action film, respectively, to REDCAT.

On October 22, the program “Animated, Golden and Restored” offers a rare glimpse at the luminous output of the “twin Golden Ages of Shanghai animation” (1950s–60s and late 1970s– early 80s). Digitally restored by the China Film Archive, the shorts include Pigsy Eats Watermelon (1958), a vibrant paper-cut animation by the pioneering Wan brothers; Baby Tadpoles Look for Their Mother (1960), the first of the ink-wash masterpieces by ASIFA lifetime achievement honoree Te Wei; and, as a bonus, China’s earliest extant animation, The Mouse and the Frog(1934), showing Disney and Fleischer influences, with a live musical accompaniment by Cliff Retallick.

The program and the film restoration project will be introduced by China Film Archive representative Zhao Jing and by CalArts alum experimental animator Miwa Matreyek.

On October 23, Zhang Yuan, the best- known exponent of the post 1990s “Urban Generation” of Chinese filmmakers, presents Beijing Flickers (2012), an incisive yet lyrical exploration of the lives of young people “trying to make it” in the melting pot of social contradictions and hybrid cultural values that Beijing has become.

In person: Zhang Yuan, Li Xinyun (schedules permitting)

Preceded by

Some Actions Which Haven’t Been Defined Yet In The Revolution  (2011)

Experimental animator Sun Xun uses woodblock prints to create a pulsating hallucinatory imagery and evoke a Kafkaesque atmosphere of grotesquery, anxiety and vague ideological constrictions.

Detailed Screening Information for October 22 & 23