OAS Film Cycle:
Jia Zhangke: My Camera Doesn’t lie
贾樟柯：我的摄影机不撒谎
Lecturer: Katja Pessl

My Camera Doesn’t Lie is a phrase used to describe post Tian’anmen filmmaking in China. Directors like Jia Zhangke started to work with hand digital video formats and amateur actors to document the massive urbanization and social change following economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. Jia, one of today’s most acclaimed Chinese filmmakers, uses documentary aesthetic to engage with the social transformations, economic forces and cultural shifts following Deng Xiaoping’s Reform and Opening. He captures the everyday lives of ordinary people and illustrates how they not only benefit from economic growth and new opportunities, but have become estranged and lost within China’s rapid transformation.

Drawing form the academic field of film studies, we will focus on the deep-rooted connections between China’s rapid modernization since the 1980s and the individuals bearing the consequences of this sweeping process. Critically examining the biographies of Jia’s  protagonists, we will engage with the history of China since the reform period and its representation in film and cinematic language. This class will focus on central questions related to China’s recent history and themes which will encourage students to discuss the relevance of documentary fiction for understanding Chinese history and contemporary debates on identity, family, economy and inequality.

Venue: OEC Raum/Room 1.163
Time: Wednesday, 16:00 – 19:30 (c.t.)

17.10.2018  Jia Zhangke, A Guy From Fenyang (2014)

07.11.2018  Pickpocket 小武 (1997)

14.11.2018  Platform 站台 (2000)

28.11.2018  The World 世界 (2004)

05.12.2018  Still Life 三峡好人 (2006)

12.12.2018  A Touch of Sin  天注定 (2013)

16.01.2019  Mountains May Depart 山河故人 (2015)

Image:Jannis Andrija Schnitzer, Haze IV, CC BY-SA 2.0., https://flic.kr/p/9sKB6W