Experimentations 6: The Uncanny in 1980s Chinese State-Sponsored Films

Los Angeles Filmforum presents

Experimentations: Imag(In)ing Knowledge in Film, Program 6:
Documentary and Science Fiction: Locating the Uncanny in 1980s Chinese State-Sponsored Films 

Sunday October 27, 2024, 7:30pm
At 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90057

In-person: Curator Zoe Meng Jiang

Tickets: $10 general, $8 students/seniors, free for Filmforum members

https://link.dice.fm/a67a6ea3e1db

Showcasing three short films made by the Chinese state in the 1980s, this program ventures into the uncanny field between documentary and science fiction. As the socialist country stumbled into capitalism, nonfiction films gave forms to alternative epistemologies that reconfigure bodies, medicine, military, and education. The boundaries between documentary, science education film and fiction genres were constantly shifted according to specific political campaigns, resulting in hybrid and often experimental practices and the construction of a new national subjectivity that transcended modern western science. Through this double engagement with both form and content, this program does not produce yet another exceptional account of Chinese media and science, but rather sheds light on the necessary political, medical, and scientific conditions of truth claims. 

Curated by Zoe Meng Jiang.

Zoe Meng Jiang is a PhD candidate at the Department of Cinema Studies at NYU. She has published in English and Chinese in the areas of media theory and history, social practice, gender and feminism, and moving-image arts. Her recent publications appeared in Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Chinese Independent Cinema, The Brooklyn Rail, Artforum China, and LEAP, among others. She is the co-editor of the “Chaotic Formats” issue of Journal of Chinese Cinemas, and was the assistant editor of the journal World Records, published by UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art. From 2018-2019 She was the chief curator at SLEEPCENTER, an independent non-profit art space in New York City.

Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film is Filmforum’s expansive film series and upcoming publication that investigates the ways that experimental and scientific films produce and question the visualization of the world.  Combining artist films utilizing scientific imagery, science and natural history films, and films of indigenous and traditional knowledge, the series examines how science, nature, and technology films shape our understanding of humans, nature, gender, knowledge, and progress.  The multi-venue public screening series presents analog and digital time-based media incorporating diverse scientific and experimental film traditions from across the globe.  The series will include eighteen screenings between September 2024 and February 2025, with films and digital works from 1874 to today from around the world, multiple guests, panels and wonderful collaborations that will reveal the possibilities and circumstances of cinema in this realm.

Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit: pst.art.  

Major support for Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film is provided by the Getty Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.  Additional Support from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture, and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.