(Edinburgh—October 17, 2024) — PERSONAL CINEMA FROM CHINA is a season of fiction and non-fiction films from China running for ten weeks online from 17 Oct, to 19 Dec. and three screenings in cinema for the launch. The film programme features eight works, with the UK premiere of Lina Yang’s Leap of Faith, and seven films rarely seen in the UK. The ICA screenings show two films by Dir. Lina Yang, Spring Tide and Leap of Faith.

In the lineup, are works from known Chinese indie directors as well as, Chinese artist and amateur filmmakers. Works by directors such as Lina Yang, Shu Haolun, Pan Lu, and Yu Araki are personal films that investigate the  social, political, and cultural conditions of contemporary China. Produced between 2010 and 2023, the works in this season offer urgent and often raw insights into issues of personal struggle, belonging  and social justice. Selected from hundreds of indies made in China over the past decades, some of the films in PERSONAL CINEMA FROM CHINA are made by writers and artists with little to no cinematography training, who have been able to take advantage of the proliferation of digital video technology to tell stories about contemporary China even as they face severe challenges in producing and distributing their work. Despite the dramatic economic and societal changes in recent years, the state maintains control over all media, including films, and recent documentaries reflecting social conditions in China are often censored.

The title of the season suggests a personal and matter-of-fact-approach that the filmmakers have taken to place themselves in front of the camera or simply turn it outside to record the old home, ‘lao jia’, reflecting on the psychological difficulty of positioning themselves in relation to China’s rapid transformations and urbanization.

Curated by Wifak Gueddana as part of her MA in Film Studies, Programming and Curation at the NFTS, the season is also the first in a series of seasons and film programmes streaming on Curate-it, presented by First-Person Film – an online initiative for the curation of personal films from China, Japan, South Korea and other countries in East Asia. First-Person Film will continue in the future to release new seasons and films for streaming, as well as, notes, film reviews and links to resources online.

Films and Dates

ICA, London

• Spring Tide, Dir. Lina Yang
  Mandarin with English subtitles| 124 min. | 2019 | Drama| Thursday, October 17, 6:30 pm |
• Leap of Faith, Dir. Lina Yang
  Mandarin with English Subtitles| 102 mins | 2023 | Documentary | UK Public Screening Premiere |Thursday, October 17, 8:45 pm and Friday October 18, 1:15 pm |
• + Introduction by Prof. Sabrina Qiong Yu, and curator, Wifak Gueddana
• Tickets are available on the ICA Website 

Curate-it (on streaming) 

• Spring Tide, Directed by Lina Yang
  Mandarin with English subtitles| 124 min. | 2019 | Drama| Thursday, 24 October (two weeks)
• Anachronic Chronicles: Voyages Inside/Out Asia, Directed by Lu Pan and Yu Araki
  With English Subtitles| 63 mins | 2021 | Documentary | Thursday, 24 October (two weeks)

_ _ _ _ _

• NO. 89 SHIMEN ROAD, Dir. Shu Haolun
  Mandarin / English subtitles| 85 mins | 2010 | Drama | Thursday, 14 November  (two weeks)
• Nostalgia Dir. Shu Haolun
  Mandarin / English subtitles| 70 mins | 2012 | Documentary | Thursday, 14 November  (two weeks)
• Anachronic Chronicles: Voyages Inside/Out Asia, Dir. Lu Pan and Yu Araki
  With English Subtitles| 63 mins | 2021 | Documentary | Thursday, 14 November  (two weeks)

_ _ _ _ _

• Shape (2022) by Linlin ZHU -7 mins (short)
• Aïeules (2021) by Zou Yang -20 mins (short)
• Export My Love, by Li Jinglin
  With English Subtitles| Documentary | 99 mins | 2020 | Thursday, 05 December (two weeks)

First-Person Film  is a newborn digital platform for the promotion of personal indie cinema from China, Japan and other countries in East, and Southeast Asia. It is built with awareness, and when possible in collaboration, with the existing initiatives in this space. First-Person aim is to create a space for watching films online, access links and materials, and promote collaboration with indie film artists, distributors and curators.

The Chinese Independent Film Archive (CIFA) is the world’s largest publicly accessible archive of independent Chinese cinema, established with the help of UK  Arts and Humanities Research Council. It is home to over 800 independent films and their associated material culture (e.g. posters, photos, publications), and around 170 oral history video interviews with a wide range of stakeholders. The archive provides a rare and invaluable resource for teaching and researching contemporary China, opening a window onto China’s culture, history, society and politics for academic communities and the general public alike. CIFA regularly curates screenings, exhibitions, and academic events with individuals and organisations across the world to promote the exhibition of, and research into, Chinese independent cinema, as well as multidisciplinary use of CIFA’s collection.

CathayPlay.com is a streaming platform dedicated to Chinese independent cinema. Launched in 2019, it now offers near 800 globally acclaimed films in various dialects and genres like drama, documentary, and animation. With a mission to bridge cultural divides, it features special content for female directors and the LGBTQIA+ community, emphasizing diversity. Catering to students, scholars, and industry professionals with tailored subscriptions, CathayPlay also distributes DVDs and publishes related content, organizing events around Chinese independent film. More than a streaming service, Cathayplay aims to be a community connected by a passion for Chinese indie films.

You can subscribe to Cathayplay and get a discount with the promo-code: 1pf2024