July-September:
Contemporary Chinese Film Series/Discussion

Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix

After each screening, Arizona State University’s John Zou, Ph.D., will lead a discussion examining how each film is part of a larger discourse among cultures attempting to understand one another in a rapidly changing world. The series is being screened in conjunction with A Tradition Redefined: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Painting from the Chu-tsing Li Collection, 1950-2000, an exhibition of 60 works that reveal the fundamental transformation of Chinese painting resulting from dynamic social, political and cultural developments in China, Taiwan and the United States in recent years.

Sunday, July 13, 1:00 PM
Blue Kite (Lan feng zheng)
On Dry Well Lane in Beijing in 1953, Chen Shujuan and Lin Shaolong marry. A year later their son, nicknamed Tietou, is born. After Shaolong dies in a reform camp, Shujuan’s love for Tietou sustains her, and the child’s blue kite embodies hope.

Sunday, August 10, 1:00 PM
Blind Shaft (Mang jing)
Two Chinese coal miners hit upon the perfect scam: murder one of their fellow mine workers, make the death look like an accident and extort money from the boss to keep the incident hushed up. As they prepare to carry out their newest plan, things start to get complicated.

Sunday, September 7, 1:00 PM
Still Life (Sanxia haoren)
Two couples reunite amid the construction of a new neighborhood along the Yangtze River near the old city of Fengjie, which is now under water after the opening of the Three Gorges Dam. After 16 years apart, Han Sanming returns to look for his ex-wife, while Shen Hong has come back in search of her husband who's been away for more than two years. Like the submerged city, the couples must decide what's worth saving and what's best left behind.