A Century of Chinese Cinema

Read the Los Angeles Times article on the series.

The Archive is pleased to present this landmark program, adapted from its recent premiere showing at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto.  Uniting archival materials from the collections of the China Film Archive (Beijing), the Hong Kong Film Archive and the Chinese Taipei Film Archive in the first ever such collaboration between those organizations, this series offers audiences a chance to consider what unites and separates the highly connected cinematic traditions of Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  This edition in Los Angeles pays special attention to firsts, founding documents and works that helped define and direct historic movements.  While acknowledging the political specificity of the three major production centers, their distinctive achievements and their respective interactions with other world cinema traditions (be they Soviet, Japanese or European, to cite a few examples), these various “Chinese” cinemas share significant aesthetic, cultural and philosophical underpinnings, and often, personnel, capital, and other resources.  Thus, the series’ title may be seen as defining an area of theoretical inquiry into the historical dialogue between these cinemas, and their interdependency as points of comparison, particularly in later years.  Such a modest sampling of such an enormous cinematic edifice can only be seen as preliminary, but the series endeavors to encourage such future explorations of the idea of a Chinese cinema. 

FREE Admission on Sunday, December 8!

Note:  Curated by Noah Cowan, artistic director, TIFF Bell Lightbox, and organized by TIFF, in collaboration with China Film Archive (Beijing), Hong Kong Film Archive and Chinese Taipei Film Archive.  Presented in association with Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles.  Organized for UCLA Film & Television Archive by Shannon Kelley.  Program notes are adapted from notes that accompanied the program at TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Special thanks to: Noah Cowan, Samuel LaFrance, TIFF Bell Lightbox; Yanrong Tan, China Film Archive; Wendy Hau, Hong Kong Film Archive; Teresa Huang, Chinese Taipei Film Archive.

Thanks to: Robert Chi, Susan Pertel Jain, Zhao Jing, Chen Mei.