Lecture & Film:

Jia Zhangke: Cinema of Transformation

From a shattered agricultural state at the end of the Cultural Revolution to the highly engineered second largest economy in the world in just under four decades: Few countries have changed as dramatically as the People’s Republic of China.

The films by Jia Zhangke, one of today’s most important Chinese directors, are seismograms of this transformation. They counter the breathtaking pace of social upheaval with a precise look and a patient rhythm; they respond to heroic future rhetoric with a sense for the abysses of everyday stories. Award-winning at festivals around the world, Zhangke’s also open up new possibilities for cinema as an art form.

From October 2019 to July 2020, the Lecture & Film series will focus on the work of Jia Zhangke. Renowned experts on Jia’s work, such as Dai Jinhua (Beijing), Dudley Andrew (Yale University), Cecilia Mello (São Paulo), Rey Chow (Duke University) and Victor Fan (King’s College London) will cover all facets, from major feature films to documentary works and short films.

In co-operation with