Largest independent film festival to focus on Chinese language/culture in the U.S. bringing 37 variety of films to Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON, SEP. 25, 2018 – The 2018 DC Chinese Film Festival (DCCFF) will return to Washington D.C. September 27-30 to present 37 outstanding documentary, narrative, experimental, and animated films created by artists of Chinese descent or featuring stories about China or Chinese culture. DCCFF is a non-profit organization dedicated to discovering outstanding Chinese cinema and encouraging cultural diversity through films. Building on the success of the festival’s past six years, the 2018 DCCFF will continue to focus on quality independent films that pay tribute to the brave and unique everyday lives in Chinese communities around the world. Audiences will once again get to watch films that would otherwise never be seen on the big screen in D.C., such as A Young Patriot, Dead Pigs, Gay Gay Land, and 404 Not Found.
Full schedule, program book, and ticket information: http://www.dccff.org/
“China’s box office has reached $6.76 billion during the past 8 months. Meanwhile, we have seen a very exciting trend that quality arthouse films in China are beginning to find a market. Two years ago, DCCFF screened a documentary called ‘22’, a moving story about the Chinese comfort women during World War II who are still living today. Last year, the film was released theatrically in China and achieved a $25.3 million box office, bringing public attention to this important aspect of Chinese history. We hope that DCCFF can help more and more quality films become known and recognized by domestic and international audiences ” –Yibin Cai, director of DC Chinese Film Festival.
Bella Wang, Programming Director of DC Chinese Film Festival, says, “Our programmers had a very difficult time making the selection because of the high quality and creativity in this year’s submissions. We’re very proud of our final lineup not only because the films are artfully made, but also for the diversity and richness these stories represent. We’re living in a vulnerable and challenging time, in a society that often seems more divided than ever. These films are incredibly relevant to the world we live in – immigrants (legal or not) striving for a better life away from their homeland, a high school girl who is bullied for being a lesbian, a young man trying to keep his spirit when the social fabric of his world had been ripped apart by the massive economic reform… Despite of our different cultural origins, these stories move and connect us on a deeply human level. They also provoke us to look at ourselves and others around us in a new perspective.”
The theme of this year’s program is “Folding World”, which focuses on telling the stories of underrepresented communities and the living situations of Chinese diasporas around the world. Some highlights from this year’s main competition include: In Character, a documentary feature that follows a group of young Chinese actors as they fully immerse themselves in the mindset of the Cultural Revolution while preparing to shoot a film, prompts inquiries about human nature under collectivism and how the shadow of the Cultural Revolution still looms over modern China; Satellite Baby, the story of a Chinese immigrant, Julie, who tries to rebuild the relationship with her kids in their new home in Flushing, Queens after leaving them in China to be raised by their extended family for years; Wangdrak’s Rain Boots, a deceptively simple and beautifully photographed film about a boy in a Tibetan mountain village whose only wish is to obtain a pair of rubber rain boots; and Dead Pigs, a sprawling multi-character narrative, in which a bumbling pig farmer, a feisty salon owner, a sensitive busboy, an expat architect and a disenchanted rich girl converge and collide as thousands of dead pigs float down the river towards a rapidly-modernizing Shanghai.
This year’s non-competition program includes five films: The Story of the Stone, an adaptation of the classic Chinese novel set in an extremely forthright depiction of Taipei’s gay club scene; Rarely Normal, a short documentary about a young gay woman facing a rare disease with astonishing bravery and positivity; Director WANG Bing’s 2017 Locarno International Film Festival Golden Leopard Award winner, Mrs. Fang, which unflinchingly chronicles the last days in the life of FANG Xiuying, an elder woman suffering through the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease; A Young Patriot, directed by this year’s DCCFF juror DU Haibin, a documentary that explores the trend of passionate patriotism in China’s youths born after 1990. We are also pleased to present a repertory screening of Take Out, co-directed by this year’s DCCFF juror Shih-Ching TSOU and Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project), which tells the story of an illegal Chinese immigrant who falls behind on paying his debts to his smugglers, leaving him only one frantic day of delivering takeout to come up with the money.
Jury members including LIAO Ching-song, legendary Taiwanese film editor; Chris Berry, professor at King’s College London and scholar of Chinese film studies; Shih-Ching Tsou, producer of Tangerine and the Academy Award-Nominated Florida Project; Aliza Ma, head of programming at Metrograph in New York; LEI Lei, award winning animation director and lecturer at CalArt; and DU Haibin, critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker (Along the Railway). The jury will decide on the award-winning films and present the awards during the closing ceremony on September 30, 2018.
This year, the festival will host a panel discussion on Independent Filmmaking in China. Established filmmakers, experts and scholars will join the festival for Q&A sessions and networking events to bring U.S. filmmakers and audiences closer to the Chinese film market and filmmaking communities all over the world.
Founded in 2011, the DC Chinese Film Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to discovering outstanding Chinese cinema from around the world and to encouraging cultural diversity through film.
Full schedule, program book, and ticket information: http://www.dccff.org/
D.C. Chinese Film Festival | 华盛顿华语电影节
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