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Blink of an Eye: Beijing’s Urbanisation on Film (15*) + ScreenTalk with director Wang Wo (via Zoom)

,Cinema 2
A hand holds a photograph showing a child in uniform standing in Tiananmen Square. Both the earlier photo and person holding the image are stood in the same location.

A selection of short documentary and experimental films that trace urban construction and development in Beijing and its surrounding areas across five decades.

Beijing has faced the Chinese government’s demands for modernisation and development over the decades. What has the rapid urbanization over the past 50 years meant for the lives of its people? Has this vision of the city, which is supposed to serve its residents, instead threatened their living spaces?

The programme includes films which immerse us in years of social collective memory from Beijing residents, a document of the last moments of an artist village, a split screen depiction of the city’s central axis and an experimental art video set in the newly constructed Beijing satellite city (Xiong'an New Area).

Curated by Chongjin Gan and Yutong Yu. This screening will be followed by a ScreenTalk with the curators (on stage) with director Wang Wo (via Zoom).

Tagged with: Cinema

Programme

Recycled

These images were sourced over the years from a recycling zone in the outskirts of Beijing. This archive of more than half a million 35mm colour film negatives is a photographic portrait of the capital and the life of its inhabitants over the last 30 years.

China 2012 dir Lei Lei &Thomas Sauvin 6 min, no dialogue
 

Artists of Yuanmingyuan

Over the course of a few years (1989–95), a group of young artists moved to the west suburbs of Beijing, seeking creative freedom among the lakes, woods, and Winter Palace ruins. This film tells their story.

China 1995 dir Hu Jie 40 min, in Mandarin with English subtitles

Up Down

Up Down is about a street and a square in the centre of China. On the ground is Changan Road, the centre of politics, finance and entertainment, and underground lies Subway Line 1, the main artery of transportation. Where there's an up, there's a down.

China 2007 dir Wang Wo 12min, in Mandarin with English subtitles.
 

Shunqiziran

In Xiongan, forests are sprouting on empty corn fields, and the burial mounds they once housed have been flattened, replaced by temporary columbariums. Shunqiziran depicts a spirit world in Xiongan, where local and non-professional actors in green screen suits roam.

China 2020 dir Sponge Gourd Collective (Diane Zhou, Beatrix Chu, Daphne Xu) 17 min, in Mandarin with English subtitles

Cinema 2

Location
Barbican Cinema 1 is located within the main Barbican building on Level -2. Head to Level G and walk towards the Lakeside Terrace where you’ll find stairs and lifts to take you down to the venue floor.   

Address
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London
EC2Y 8DS

Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.