24 City at DOCLAB

Sat 05 June, 6 pm
Screening Room, Goethe Institute

DOCLAB cordially invites you to the screening of 24 City by Chinese filmmaker, Jia Zhangke. The film follows three generations of characters in Chengdu (in the 1950s, the 1970s and the present day) as a state-owned factory gives way to a modern apartment complex.

The apartment complex featured in the film is an actual development (also called “24 City”) built on the former site of an airplane engine manufacturing facility. The film’s narrative style is described by critics as a blend of fictional and documentary storytelling, and it consist of five authentic interviews and four fictional scenes delivered by actors (but presented in a documentary format).

Jia Zhangke is generally regarded as a leading figure of the “Sixth Generation” movement of Chinese cinema. Jia’s early films, a loose trilogy based in his home province of Shanxi, were made outside of China’s state-run film bureaucracy, and therefore are considered “underground” films. Jia’s films have received critical praise and have been recognized internationally, notably winning the Venice Film Festival’s top award for Still Life. He has been described by critics and film directors as being perhaps “the most important filmmaker working in the world today.”

The film is in Chinese with English and Vietnamese subtitles.

The screening is non-profit and aims for studies and research only.

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