Visions and Desires: Independent Filmmaking in Post-Socialist China (event booklet)
The Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library and the East Asian Studies Graduate Student Union (EASGSU) cordially invite you to join us on Thursday, May 19 for "Visions and Desires: Independent Filmmaking in Post-Socialist China," an online forum on Chinese independent filmmaking, featuring Shi Qing, Fan Popo, and Zhu Rikun. Presentations and discussions will be in English and Chinese Mandarin.
Throughout the week of May 16-21, 2022, we will also be hosting an online film festival featuring films by the invited filmmakers. Links to view the films online will be shared following event registration. Please see our event booklet for a list of selected films and their synopses.
This event is co-presented by the East Asian Studies Graduate Student Union (EASGSU) and the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of East Asian Studies and the Women & Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto.
Click here to view photos from the online forum...
Panelists:
- Shi Qing 石青
- Fan Popo 范坡坡
- Zhu Rikun 朱日坤
In conversation with:
- Professor Yue Meng, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto
- Professor Shana Ye, Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto
- Professor Yi Gu, Department of Art History, University of Toronto
Date: Thursday, May 19, 2022 from 9:45 am to 1:00 pm EDT
- Opening remarks: Rose Liu (President, EASGSU), Hana Kim (Director, East Asian Library), and Professor Yi Gu (Professor, Department of Art History) (9:45 - 10:00 am)
- Panel 1: Shi Qing 石青 in dialogue with Professor Yue Meng (10:00 - 10:55 am, in Mandarin)
- Panel 2: Fan Popo 范坡坡 in dialogue with Professor Shana Ye (11:00 - 11:55 am)
- Panel 3: Zhu Rikun 朱日坤 in dialogue with Professor Yi Gu (12:00 - 12:55 pm)
Location: Zoom (registration required)
Panel 1: Shi Qing 石青 in dialogue with Professor Yue Meng (10:00 - 10:55 am EDT, in Mandarin)
Shi Qing is an artist currently based in Shanghai, China. His work involves a variety of media including installation, video, and performance, emphasizing subject practice and media writing based on field work. He touches upon the fields of body and site, nomadic geography, spatial production, media archaeology, and socialist technology history. He is also an active organizer of various social projects, acting as a co-founder of institutions such as Radical Space, Chongqing Work Institution, and Jiangnan Stack.
- Selected films: Split Up (2013), Qian Xuesen and the Yangtze River Computer (2021)
Dr. Yue Meng is a professor in the East Asian Studies Department. Her research interests include: environmental humanities, Chinese cultural history and literature, history of science, and modern Chinese cities.
Panel 2: Fan Popo 范坡坡 in dialogue with Professor Shana Ye (11:00 - 11:55 am EDT)
Fan Popo is a Berlin-based filmmaker, writer, and activist from China, where his queer documentary films have made a notable impact. Since 2016, he has concentrated on writing and directing scripted, sex-positive shorts. He is the founder of the Queer University Video Training Camp and has been an organizer of the Beijing Queer Film Festival for more than a decade. Popo was invited to sit on the jury of the Teddy Award of the Berlinale in 2019.
- Selected films: Beer! Beer! (2019), The Drum Tower (2018), The VaChina Monologues (2018)
Dr. Shana Ye is a professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research lies at the intersection of transnational feminism, queer social reproduction, queer cinema, post/socialist studies and theories of affect and trauma.
Panel 3: Zhu Rikun 朱日坤 in dialogue with Professor Yi Gu (12:00 - 12:55 pm EDT)
Zhu Rikun is an independent film director and producer, as well as a curator from China. He is the founder of Fanhall Films and chief editor of cinema website fanhall.com. Zhu founded Documentary Film Festival China in 2003, which is one of the earliest independent film festivals in China. As a director, Zhu’s has made the following films: The Questioning, The Dossier, Welcome, Dust, Anni, and No Desire to Hide (also named Siren in original title).
- Selected films: No Desire to Hide (2021)
Dr. Yi Gu is a professor in the Art History Department at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the art and visual culture of China’s long 20th century. She is interested in Cold War visual culture and Post-Socialist art, comparative media studies, Chinese photography history and contemporary photography in Asia, and mass art and amateurism.