THE PREMISES:
Pingyao Festival was founded by the great director Jia Zhang ke in the mythical Chinese city of Pingyao, which is 2,800 years old. The old city, classified as a UNESCO world heritage site, has preserved its ancient protective walls.
In its heart is a former disused factory, transformed into the festival palace. The originality of this palace is to have been able to preserve the old brick buildings by adapting them to the need to have places in line with the organization of an international film festival. This originality is reinforced by the attribution to certain buildings of the site, a name related to the history of Chinese cinema.
The 550-seat, large indoor cinema is called “Spring in a small town” after the cult film by Fei Mu, father of Chinese auteur cinema in the 1930s in Shanghai. The large open-air theatre with 1500 seats is called «Platform», a nod to the film by Jia Zhang ke.
The room connecting the building where accreditation and cinema tickets are collected, the VIP lounge where festival guests rest, and the foyer where debates take place is called “The Show Must Go On”. This room is a crossroads where film professionals, the many film students and the 180 volunteers of the Festival meet. Each evening is organized in this place a «Filmmaker’s night».
Beyond the foyer, a large staircase leads to a large exhibition hall showcasing film posters. The main program outlines are posted on the right wall. On the left is the press conference room.
Past this space, there is a huge hall where the public and festival guests can eat at one of the street food stalls, make souvenir purchases, buy cinema tickets at automatic kiosks, have a drink between two movie screenings, or go to one of the restaurants.
On the right side of this huge hall is the film market and four movie theatres: hall 1, hall 2, hall 3 and hall 4. These cinemas are equipped with approximately 140 comfortable reclining chairs and quality cinema screens.
Beyond this huge hall, there is a large building for conferences. Amenities are not forgotten. They are scattered throughout the festival. All around this central block of buildings described above are other buildings, the administrative offices of the festival, cafes, beer bars, fast food restaurants,...
PROGRAMMING:
This 8th edition is composed of sections:
Hidden Dragons: 12 Chinese films: Hello Spring de MA Lanhua, Village Music de Lina WONG, A Song River de ZHU Karst de YANG Suiyi, Chinatown cha-cha de Luka Yuanyuan YANG, Floating Clouds Obscure the Sun de SHEN Tao, A River Without Tears de LIU Juan, True love, Force once in my live de SIU Koon Ho, Reflections in the Lake de ZHAI Yixiang, Betwixt and Between de ZHOU Quan, Stars and the Moon de TANG Yongkang, Green Wave de XU Lei.
Crouching Tigers: 12 films from non-Asian countries: Savanna and the Mountain de Paulo Carneiro (Portugal), Universal Language de Matthew Rankin (Canada), Good one d’India Donaldson (USA), Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed de Hernán Rosselli (Argentina), Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point de Taylor Taormina (USA), The Girl With The Needle de Magnus Von Horn ( Denmark), Sujo d’Astrid Londero (Mexico), The Story Of Souleymane de Boris Lojkine (France), I Saw Three Black Lights de Santiago Lozano Alvarez (Colombia), My Summer With Irène de Carlo Sironi (Italia), The Sparrow In the Chimney de Ramon Zürcher (Switzerland), Happy End de Sora Oo (USA).
Galas: 7 films from France (La Prisonnière de Bordeaux de Patricia Mazuy), from Italia (The Damned de Roberto Minervini), from España (The Other Way Around de Jonás Trueba), from Hong Kong ( Crossing Years de Yonfan), from Japan (Black Box Diaries de Ito Shiori), from Italia (There’s Still Tomorrow de Paula Cortellesi), from Japan (My Sunshine de Hiroshi Okayama).
Made in Shanxi: 6 films presented in world premiere shot in Shanxi province: Fen River Flowing de Hao Yun, Tiger In Cages de Wang Chuwei, Wen Rou de Li Jiaxi, The Silver Coin Villa de Guo Dongsheng, Hidden Landscapes de Guo Xufeng, My Taxi Dad de Geng Lei.
Retrospective: Earth. This thematic section entitled this year Earth is composed of 3 short films filmed by pioneers of cinema between 1901-1904 and 1912 and 9 feature films made between 1930 and 1992, including Pather Panchali by Satyajit Ray, Naked Island by Kaneto Shindo, And life goes on ... by Abbas Kiarostami, The Yellow Earth by Chen Kaige, in a copy restored this year of the 40th anniversary of its realization,...
Chen Kaige is given a vibrant tribute in his presence at the opening ceremony of the 8th Pingyao Festival.
This selection is completed by 13 short films in a section entitled: Hidden Dragons - Shorts, and by surprise screenings of films in the «Pingyao surprise» section such as I’m still here by Walter Salles, Grand Retour by Miguel Gomes, Waiting for the fall of Francois Ozon, ...
At the Film Market, 16 film projects are supported by 16 directors.
An animation around the Literary Picturized Project allows 17 writers to present their adaptation projects for the screen of novels.
The programme of activities set up during this edition of the festival is completed by Cultivation and Pingyao Corner. The latter offers a forum for projects of 10 film academies in China.
OPENING DAY:
The opening day begins at 4:00 pm with the opening reception, a ritual of welcoming members of the various juries and film teams on the red carpet, some of them going to the Photocall, and sometimes, for a few, subjects of a brief interview.
After the red carpet, guests and audience go to the open-air theatre “Platform” for the opening ceremony composed of stereotyped speeches by official representatives of institutions, music performances, songs and dances, the presentation of an honorary prize to the immense Chen Kaige, the presentation of the members of the various juries.
This ceremony is concluded in a festive way by an unexpected show where the different directors present are invited to come on stage to sing in duet with Jia Zhang ke «Don’t worry, be happy» of the famous American singer and vocalist Bobby McFerrin.
The opening film team of LIU Juan’s A river without tears takes to the stage and presents it.
The screening begins for the large audience. Guests attend the Welcome Dinner followed by the Filmmaker’s Welcome Party.
THE FILMS:
In all festivals, it is impossible to see everything. The sessions are from 10am to 22pm at a sustained rate of 4 to 5 sessions per day.
The films judged by the Netpac jury:
China Town Cha-cha by documentary filmmaker YANG Luka Yuanyuan opens the ball of film festivities. This very sensitive film portrays both Asian cabaret dancers from 1940 to 2020, and the American segregation gradually releasing its apriori on Asio- Americans. It is also a film about old age, uprooting, friendship between women, the Chinese diaspora in the world. The director shows worn and faded bodies always inhabited by a formidable desire to live.
Black Box Diaries, a chilling autobiographical documentary by Japanese documentarian and journalist Ito Shiori. She describes her eight-year struggle to get her rapist, a well-known journalist and biographer of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, convicted. It is only after the assassination of the latter that she manages to obtain justice. This film is both universal and Japanese. Japanese law is less protective of rape victims than French law.
Karst by Yang Suiyi paints the portrait of a woman from southern China, worried about her cows that no longer eat. She goes to meet her best friend, her lover, visits karst caves, hence the name of the film.
Tiger in cages by Wang Chuwei features a young woman entering the apartment of her best friend who is absent. She discovers that the latter is cheating on her with her husband. She tries to avoid the surveillance camera of the apartment. The film is meant to be a parable about trust and betrayal.
Hello Spring by Ma Lanhua addresses the issue of too rigid education in China where students have a lot of work to do in addition to classes. One teacher eventually understands that it is better to arouse the desire to learn and give a taste of culture than to impose knowledge. The treatment of the film is very original mixing real images and animation images
True Love for once in my life by Siu Koon Ho has Sabrina as the heroine, played by the great Hong Kong actress Cecilia Yip. This one thinks that we have only one love in her life. Discovering that her husband has a double life, she divorces but when her ex-husband gets sick she accompanies him to the end. This film is full of humor, sometimes a little too strong.
Hidden Landscapes by GUI Xufeng is a documentary about the huge French-speaking Chinese musician Chen Qigang. The images of concerts given in France or Australia are léchées. They underline the universality of music. The dialogues are often interesting reflections on artistic creation.
Betwixt and Between by Zhou Quan is a film that is confusing in its construction, mixing literature and reality to address the problem of harassment at school, violence in prisons.
Towering Land by Li Yuing, begins with an unbearably long introduction to the different characters in this film. The director tells three stories of people between two ages who have problems that make them unhappy. They think about ending their lives, but eventually give up on their suicide plans.
Floating Clouds Obscure the Sun, Tao Shen’s first fiction film, depicts a woman living alone in her village after her father-in-law died. Her husband is away, probably working in a distant country. She had two children who have also left the family home since they were adults. This fiction is a beautiful reflection on loneliness, old age, the weight that seniors represent for the youngest.
The depth, sensitivity and photographic quality of this first work has attracted the attention of the Netpac jury, composed of Martine Thérouanne, chairperson (France), Shannon King (Australia) and Pan Zhixin (China). He presented his prize at the awards ceremony by the various juries on Saturday, September 28, 2024, in the great hall Spring in a Small Town.
The festival continued on Sunday, September 29 and ended on Monday, September 30, 2024, with the closing Red carpet honouring the 180 volunteers, followed by the Filmmaker’s party at the Foyer, Closing the wonderful 8th Pingyao Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon International Film Festival is characterized by its professionalism, enthusiastic youth of its audience, its friendliness, the great quality of the programming and events set up. The Pingyao Festival is cinema at the service of the culture of brotherhood.
Written By Jean- Marc Thérouanne.