Cinematheque108 Presents: Chinese Female Filmmakers Series: Part 1

Youth Sacrifice (qinchun ji青春祭), directed by Zhang Nuanxin 张暖忻, 1985, Youth Film Studio, 101 min, on 35mm.
A sent-down youth from Beijing discovered herself in her journey in Yunnan province.

Woman Demon Human (ren gui qing人鬼情), directed by Huang Shuqin 黄蜀芹, 1987, Shanghai Film Studio, 108min, on 35mm.
Based on the real life of Peking Opera Star Pei Yanling, the film delineates the life of a famous female opera performer who impersonates male roles, especially the demon-ghost Zhong Kui. Claimed to be the first “feminist film” in China, this movie explores the issue of gender roles and subjectivity through exquisite mise-en-sene and carefully conceptualized framing.

Probably due to the gender equity program that was enforced by the state in socialist China, quiet a few female filmmakers who grew up under the new China after 1949 emerged and directed numerous influential films in 1980s and continued to play a vital role in the field of Chinese cinema as well as TV drama production. Film education was highly centralized in socialist China, which contributes to the fact that the four female filmmakers selected in this screening series all graduated from film directing department, Beijing Film Academy. Some of these women filmmakers such as Huang Shuqin and Zhang Nuanxin went to the film academy before the Cultural Revolution and they are referred as members of the Fourth Generation. Others such as Li Shaohong and Peng Xiaolian entered the film academy after the Cultural Revolution and were classmates with Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, and they share the tag of the Fifth Generation.

In the mid-1980s, these female filmmakers worked in state-own studio system and produced a wide range of films concerning the recent history as well as the present, the quotidian everyday life as well as the heroic moments. Allegorically or realistically, these films focus on the struggle and negotiation of a single or multiple female protagonists in different social contexts.

Thanks to the China Film Collection in USC Moving Image Archive, which includes over 100 Chinese films donated by China Film Corporation in 35mm format, we are glad to present a variety of the works of these female directors across themes, styles and generational differences. All films will be shown in 35mm format with English subtitles.

Organized by Jia Tan, a Ph.D. student in the Critical Studies Division, to highlight the USC China Film Collection.

Cinematheque108 is an alternative screening series and educational forum sponsored by Critical Studies at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.  For more information please call (213)-740-3334, or e-mail cinematheque108@cinema.usc.edu for a schedule. All events are free and are on Thursday evenings in SCA 108 unless otherwise noted. Please note that there will be no food, drink, or gum allowed inside the theater.

To view the calendar of screenings, click here.

The USC School of Cinematic Arts is located at 900 W. 34th St., Los Angeles, CA 90007. Parking passes may be purchased for $8.00 at USC Entrance Gate #5, located at the intersection of W. Jefferson Blvd. & McClintock Avenue. We recommend parking in outdoor Lot M or V, or Parking Structure D, at the far end of 34th Street. Please note that Parking Structure D cannot accommodate tall vehicles such as SUVs. Metered parking is also available along Jefferson Blvd.