Pangea Day Shanghai is an inspired, 12-hour marathon celebration of communication through the moving image. We will be screening the live Pangea Day broadcast at the ShangHigh Productions studio and in the lead-up to the globally-shared programme — 24 shorts selected from over 2500 submitted from 100 countries — Pangea Day Shanghai will feature recent works from locally based filmmakers.
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THE VITALS
DATE: Saturday, May 10, 2008
TIME: 6pm to 6am
Local content from 6pm to 2am
Pangea Day worldwide broadcast 2am to 6am
ADDRESS: 3/F 250 Chuanchang Lu near Zhongshan Nan Lu (No, we’d never heard of Chuanchang Lu either, but it’s a quick ‘n’ easy, 13 kuai cab from downtown, so no excuses!)
STILL CONFUSED? pangeadaysh@gmail.com.
*** ON THE DAY, PLEASE CALL before you hop in a cab to make sure there are indeed spots available. There is LIMITED CAPACITY at the venue, but we’ll be answering phones for all 12 hours to update you on the situation: 136 8166 0372 or 158 0061 0089 (day of only).***
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SCHEDULE: MAIN SCREENING ROOM
6 to 7:15pm: “A Farewell Song” (2006)
A documentary by Arthur and Luther Jones (LostPensivos Films). Chinese with English subtitles.After distinguished careers in China’s state-run orchestras, four musicians retire to enjoy family life and the relative freedoms of the 21st century. But the prospect of one last – and independent – concert reunites them and calls them back to the stage. This is more than a farewell to the music they love; it is their chance to pass it on, renewed, to a wider audience. As the event draws near, a sudden tragedy compels them to reflect on their shared past: five decades of remarkable music that has kept them going through hardship and upheaval.
“A Farewell Song” has played at many festivals the world over, and scooped several awards including the Special Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2007 Syracuse International Film Festival.
Q&A with director Arthur Jones and producer Luo Tong following the screening.
7:15 to 7:45pm: Shorts by ShanghHigh Productions
“Chuantong (Tradition)” (2006) directed by Severin Bonnichon and Hector Nanquette; “Simple Horror Movie” (2006) directed by Severin Bonnichon and Svetlina Pavlova. English and Chinese with English subtitles.ShangHigh Productions presents two recent shorts: “Chuantong (Tradition)” ruminates on the nature of homosexual relationships in modern-day Shanghai, and the accompanying inner turmoil. The experimental “Simple Horror Movie” is a satirical jab at today’s Hollywoodified horror genre. “Chuantong (Tradition)” won the audience award the 2006 Meiwenti Short Film Contest in Shanghai, and “Simple Horror Movie” walked off with the jury’s prize.
Q&A with the directors following the screening.
7:45 to 9:00pm: “Shanghai Gloaming: The Shadow of the City” (2005)
A documentary by Eric Ransdell (FLY Films). English and Chinese with English subtitles.“Shanghai Gloaming: The Shadow of the City” is an observational documentary that follows art photographer Greg Girard on his five-year project photographing Shanghai’s disappearing lanes, houses and historic neighbourhoods. The fruits of this project have been exhibited internationally, and can also be found in the book “Phantom Shanghai”. This film is an opportunity to not only see remnants of Old Shanghai through Girard’s lens, but also to understand the tales of their residents as the photographer cozies up to his subjects.
Q&A with producer Norman Wong following the screening.
9:00 to 10:00pm: Shorts by Ukachi Arinzeh (Bushboy Films)
English, Chinese and Spanish with English subtitles.Ukachi Arinzeh is a Shanghai-based independent filmmaker who has worked on projects for the likes of Current TV and “Chappelle’s Show”. Here, he presents a quartet of shorts filmed across three continents:
* “Skating in the Hai” explores the surge of skateboarding in Shanghai and how the movement has connected young people of different nationalities.
* “Red Ink” looks at the evolution of and changes occurring in present-day China by examining the development of Chinese contemporary art.
* Young, talented rappers in Cuba find their voices and liberation through the underground hip-hop scene in “I Am Hip Hop”.
* “The Bush and the Cross” examines how traditional Ibo culture attempts to coexist with the teachings of the Catholic church in small-town Nigeria.
Q&A with Ukachi Arinzeh following the screening.
10:00 to 11:45pm: “Soul Carriage” (2007)
A feature film by Conrad Clark (Practice Productions). Chinese with English subtitles. www.soulcarriage.comA young migrant worker takes a journey through industrial Zhejiang Province in an attempt to return the body of a dead co-worker to his family. A beautifully shot, affecting look at life, loss and loneliness in rapidly changing China.
“Soul Carriage” won the Best Feature Film Award at the 2007 Rome Asian Film Festival; and Beijing-based British director Conrad Clark won the Best New Director Award at the 2007 San Sebastian Film Festival for his directorial debut.
Q&A with producer Wendy Kuan following the screening.
11:45pm to 1:45am: “A State of Mind”
A documentary by Daniel Gordon (VeryMuchSo Productions). English and Korean with English subtitles. www.astateofmind.co.ukFollowing two young gymnasts and their families in the lead up to the Mass Games – the most elaborate human performance on Earth – “A State of Mind” peers into one of the world’s least known societies, North Korea. Aside from exploring the choreographed, socialist realism spectacle that is the Mass Games, the film also looks at everyday life in the DPRK. From Juche, the state-mandated belief system of the DPRK, to evidence’s of the omnipresence of Kim Il Sung – the ‘Eternal President’ who died in 1994 but remains Head of State – “A State of Mind” is a fascinating observational piece on an opaque state.
Q&A with co-producers Nick Bonner and Simon Cockerell, who are currently making a romantic comedy in North Korea, following the screening. For those who have seen “A State of Mind”, another VeryMuchSo film called “Crossing the Line” – about American defectors to North Korea during the Cold War – will be screened simultaneously. To reserve a spot, email panthea.lee (at) gmail.com…
TEASER: A SECOND, ITTY BITTY SCREENING ROOM
A second room will have works - from experimental video art to full-length feature documentaries - by Patrick Carr, Daniel Gordon, Zero Lin, ShangHigh Productions, Haolun Shu, Eric Siu, Richard Trombly, and Norman Wong throughout the night. More information to come soon.
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ALL THE OTHER GOOD STUFF
Live art by Nial O’Connor, in association with Hitotoki Shanghai
Photography by Adam Dean and Chen Rui Yuan
Wine from The Merchant
Food - think shwarmas, baklavas and other Middle Eastern delights - from Haya’s Mediterranean Cuisine
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XIE XIE…
Big-time gratitude for our friends at ShangHigh Productions, Intrude: Art & Life 366, Beef Is Sexy, Twocities Gallery, Neocha, Yue Foundation, Hands On Shanghai, Hitotoki, The Merchant, and Haya’s Mediterranean Cuisine.
This post is tagged Pangea Day
4 Comments
An extraordinary event for Shanghai indeed;
Full-bloded movie selection, full-hearted oragnization;
Good Work and way to go!
From the smiling forewarns at the gate about the coming stairs to the second floor, to the flying candies for obtaining the audiance’s blood shugar level,
from the inspiring selection of movies and live art acts to the cheep and good food and wine ,
the warm, canny and yet spontanious organization complemented perfectly with the space of Shang High Production studio, that could take the very same atributes.
Finding this kind of studio in the death end of the street between the desert concrete factories lanscape also coresponded much with finding this realy satisfying event in the Shanghai cultural life.
Thanks and way to go to the organizers and all involved in the event!
Panthea - well done and thank you for taking the initiative and helping to inject a huge boost of culture into the Shanghai scene. Your energy and enthusiasm for the betterment of our minds shall be rewarded, somehow. not sure how. but anyhow, however, you’ll be rewarded!
Whats next?
thanks for your enthusiasm to organize this nice event
sorry to say that I saw few local people there.such a good chance to know the world and open our mind through the films.Hope more Chinese people join it.
Cvetanovska and Evo:
Thank you for the very nice words, just glad you had a good time. (And, Cvet, those flying candies were what kept me going for the near-24 hours at the venue. In sugar I trust…)
What’s next? Back to focusing on writing for a while, methinks, though always a few interesting projects on the go. Variety is not just the spice of life, it the freelancer’s luxury.
Lo:
Unfortunately, due to the current regulatory environment, we really had to really limit the avenues we could promote in — trust me, an English-only flyer was, for us, far from ideal — and even the media that we green-lighted for attendance. I agree, though, would love to see a more mixed crowd in future — happy to chat about this privately. Email’s on the ‘Contact’ page. Thanks for coming out!
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