Chinese cinema – Institute for Global Cinema and Creative Cultures

Wu Tianming @ St Andrews: The Dossier now published

The cluster of video and written essays dedicated to the life and work of this great Chinese cineaste WU TIANMING (1939-2014) is a direct consequence of the great opening up of Chinese cinema to Western audiences that we are witnessing. Wu Tianming was not only a cruical figure of China’s Fourth generation of fim directors, but also the person who enabled — in his capacity of director of the Xi’an film studios — the most important directors of the Fifth generation, such as Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhiangzhuang and Chen Kaige, make their entry into cinema. We commemorated his work at the IGCCC workshop on 9 April 2018, when we screened his film OLD WELL (1987). Subsequently, many of the contributions from the workshop were published online in a dossier dedicated to the director.

The dossier can be found in FRAMES CINEMA JOURNAL, ISSUE 14 (December 2018). Here is a link to the introductory video essay by Peize Li, which presents the complexity of Wu’s career.

Video Essay: Wu Tianming and the Xi’an Film Studio in China

The WU TIANMING DOSSIER also includes

Dina Iordanova, Introduction https://framescinemajournal.com/article/introduction-wu-tianming-at-st-andrews/

Chris Berry, Video Essay: Remembering Wu Tianming https://framescinemajournal.com/article/video-essay-remembering-wu-tianming/

Xie Fei, Video Essay: Tribute to Wu Tianming https://framescinemajournal.com/article/video-essay-tribute-to-wu-tianming/

Wu Guanping, Video Essay: The Legacy of Wu Tianming https://framescinemajournal.com/article/video-essay-the-legacy-of-wu-tianming/

Himin Deng, River Without Buoys: The Construction of Post Revolutionary State Ideology

September Liu, In Memorial of Wu Tianming: An Anecdote and Some Notes

Latest

The Rest and the West: Ripoff or Resourceful Creativity, 7-8 October 2017 - Organized by Prof Dina Iordanova along with postgraduate students, this two day conference explored various aspects of the transnational flows in transcultural film remakes, matters of cultural appropriation and other relevant interpretative frameworks, a project in part inspired by German-Turkish diasporic film director Cem Kaya’s film REMAKE, REMIX, RIP-OFF : ABOUT COPYCULTURE AND TURKISH POPULAR […]

THE LANDSCAPE OF NEW BRAZILIAN CINEMA - THE LANDSCAPE OF NEW BRAZILIAN CINEMA offers an encounter with scholar – and now filmmaker – Lúcia Nagib and others, on Tuesday, 30 June 2020. Participants will be invited to see, in advance, Lúcia Nagib and Samuel Paiva’s 94-min long film PASSAGES: TRAVELLING IN AND OUT OF FILM THROUGH BRAZILIAN GEOGRAPHY (2019, Portuguese, English subtitles), which […]

On the Practice of Film Criticism, with Jean-Michel Frodon - In this workshop on THE PRACTICE OF FILM CRITICISM we will combine viewing of a film an a discussion with renowned French film critic and essayist Jean-Michel Frodon. Participants will be invited to see, in advance, a 52 min long film, ALLER-RETOUR (2018), in which Jean-Michel Frodon discusses the practice of film criticism with […]

Kira Muratova @ St Andrews (and now online), 2020 - Kira Muratova (1934-2018), who worked mostly in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, is one of the most innovative, imaginative, exciting and versatile directors to emerge out of the Soviet Union, where her early films were censored and her later work – celebrated. Whilst she is well known within the territory of Russia and Ukraine, her […]

Buddhism and Thai Cinema: Screening of Santi-Vina (Thavi Na Bangchang (‘Marut’), 1954) - We are excited to announce that the IGCCC will host a screening of Santi-Vina (Thavi Na Bangchang ('Marut'), 1954) on Wednesday, 6 November. Considered lost for almost 60 years, the first Thai film shot on 35mm in colour has been found and restored.

New Political Cinema, Asia, and Beyond: TEN YEARS multimedia dossier in FRAMES - The multimedia dossier New Political Cinema, Asia, and Beyond: TEN YEARS was published in FRAMES CINEMA JOURNAL, Issue 15, May 2019. It contains the following articles: Introduction by Prof Gina Marchetti (HKU) and Prof Dina Iordanova (St Andrews) Video Interview with the producers of the TEN YEARS series: conducted, recorded, edited and subtitled by Dr. […]

Mrinal Sen @ St Andrews, 2019 - Mrinal Sen, whose death “marks the end of Golden Age of Indian cinema’s stalwart filmmakers” (Hindustan Times), was commemorated in this workshop which took place on 20 May 2019. The great Indian Bengali director died in Kolkata on 30 December 2018 at the age of 95, leaving a legacy of award-winning realist leftist films, which […]

Ten Years: Asian Political Cinema, University of Hong Kong, January 2019 - The film TEN YEARS HONG KONG (2015) is considered the most important example of post hand-over political cinema, charting the anxieties of a whole generation of Hong Kong residents. In 2018, three further politically topical films were made in Asia, to the same model: TEN YEARS THAILAND, TEN YEARS TAIWAN, and TEN YEARS JAPAN, involving […]

TEN YEARS OF FILM FESTIVAL STUDIES: BEYOND THE FIRST DECADE, Birkbeck College, London, 8 March 2019 - The inaugural event for the field of Film Festival Studies took place in April 2009 at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews. It was attended by international scholars and festival practitioners and triggered a massive publishing and research programme which evolved in the decade that followed. A decade later, in 2019, enabled by a grant […]

Wu Tianming @ St Andrews: The Dossier now published - The cluster of video and written essays dedicated to the life and work of this great Chinese cineaste WU TIANMING (1939-2014) is a direct consequence of the great opening up of Chinese cinema to Western audiences that we are witnessing. Wu Tianming was not only a cruical figure of China’s Fourth generation of fim directors, […]