Dancing with Water_Chinese Women's Cinema_SHORTS II

SHORTS: “Diaspora Blues” (Runtime: 87 min)

Presented by: Sine Screen

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0	LONDON: BLOC, Arts One Building
P	Saturday 30th March, 2024
N	3:30pm

Event information

SHORTS: “Diaspora Blues” is part of Dancing with Water Chinese Women's Cinema film season. This Shorts programme collects 4 shorts created by 4 emerging directors. The screening will be followed by a conversation between the two curators of the "Dancing with Water" film season on the theme of short films in contemporary China.

A Walk Down Memory Lane (WANG Kejing,18min, 2021)
A young gardener finds himself embarking on a tour to see rock formations and waterfalls, where he slips into the identity of a tour guide. With a fellow tourist, they experience yet more overlaps of topography, flips of identities, and ruptures in what is set in stone.

The Thing with Feathers (Tianlin Xu, 19 min, 2022)
In this film, we catch a glimpse into an Iranian-Afghan family's one day in life in Germany solely through seeing their hands. Iranian doctor Maryam came with her family to Germany for asylum two years ago. After her little daughter, Yara, was born, she sticks to a strict daily studying routine, hoping to return to her medical career while her husband Hossain takes care of their baby at home. On this day, Hossain has a Job interview at a photo studio, and Maryam has to reschedule her day.

What Can I Hold You With (SHEN Di, 19min, 2021)
After missing a meeting with a friend, an elderly Afghan living in Yiwu, China, decided to roam the city on a sleepless night. He tried to go to the
mountain to find the stone he had seen with his friend.

Welcome Home (Yao Kuo-Chen, 30min, 2022)
Memory is something personal. Jia chose to build on part of her memory a private memory bank. She, her mother and time are like a train driving in the darkness of the night to flee to the destination and to a reconciliation. It is the epitome of a period of time and the secret history of the women in a Chinese family. The relationship between the mother and daughter existed in mystery like a dream. It is subtle but real, depicting how a woman questioned her life calmly, indifferently and independently.

Programme intro:
Dancing with Water 2024 is introducing over 15 film events exploring contemporary China and women's cinema. The programme will be presented from Feburary to April 2024 across venues in London.

The programme is curated by Kiki Tianqi Yu and Shan Tong, which captures a burgeoning energy of fluidity, flexibility and resilience of Chinese women filmmakers and their cinemas, resonating with the Daoist concept of yin and water as not only soft and formless but also pervasive and tenacious.

For more please check out www.dancingwithwaterfilm.com.