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Inaugurated in 2012, the China Onscreen Biennial (COB) returns this year with an expanded second edition showcasing the multiplicity of voices that have placed China among the world’s most dynamic film and media environments today. A curated slate of film screenings, visual art and talks will launch citywide in Los Angeles on October 17, after which the program will travel to Washington, DC and other cities through November 14. Sixth Generation director Wang Xiaoshuai (Beijing Bicycle, 2001) kicks off an exciting selection of film premieres with his latest film, which debuted in the main competition at Venice Film Festival this year. Also featured are two auteur homages: a “Tribute to Wu Tianming,” the late, accomplished director who, as chief of the Xi’an Film Studio in the 1980s, nurtured the groundbreaking cinema of the Chinese Fifth Generation; and “Jiang Wen: Let the Movies Fly,” our salute to the actor-director who blazed a path of maverick glory through nearly three decades of Chinese cinema. Complementing the films will be “art” slideshows, created especially for the COB by four notable Chinese and China-based artists. The slideshows will be projected in the COB theaters in the wait time before film screenings, and will explore China’s media convergence and flux through the double theme of 景 观 | 观 景 or landscape | viewing. (Flipping the Chinese characters yields the double meaning). More than simply a series of film screenings, this multi-city biennial endeavors to create a context for American audiences to better understand China’s breathtaking transformations in film and media, and the transnational impact of those transformations.
Please note: COB events in Los Angeles will also take place at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles, Pomona College and AFI FEST. For the complete COB calendar, visit the China Onscreen Biennial website: www.global.ucla.edu/cob.
2-for-1 admission for non-UCLA students to COB events at the Billy Wilder Theater and James Bridges Theater box offices. Always free admission for UCLA students.
COB program curated by: Cheng-Sim Lim (Chief Curator), Bérénice Reynaud (Film Curatorial Advisor, Film at REDCAT); Shannon Kelley, Paul Malcolm (UCLA Film & Television Archive); Tom Vick (Freer and Sackler Galleries); Jonathan Hall (Pomona College); Julia Grimes (Visual Art Curatorial Advisor).
UCLA Confucius Institute: Susan Pertel Jain (Executive Director), Holly Barnhill-Hernandez (COB Marketing), Ma Xiaojie (COB Project Manager), Zhuang Lailai (Associate Director, SJTU).
Program Sponsors: Stephen Lesser, UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, Confucius Institute at George Mason University, Confucius Institute at George Washington University, Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland, Confucius Institute at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Asia Society Southern California, SCAD Hong Kong.
Corporate Sponsors: yU+Co, Knoable, WeChat, Daniel Ho Creations.
