Hangzhou New Cinema comes to the NFTS in December

By   |  Dec 10, 2020

A new online film season entitled ‘Hangzhou New Cinema’ will be streaming on the NFTS Screening Room platform from 15-18th December 2020.

Curated and Programmed as part of NFTS Film Studies, Programming and Curation MA, this online film season celebrates the city of Hangzhou and its batch of new, exciting filmmaking talent. These auteurs, who are either originally from or studied in Hangzhou, all share an innate understanding of the city’s topography, local culture, and unique character. Their films are informed by their personal experiences and speak to an emerging emphasis on geographical perspective prevalent in modern Chinese cinema.

Located near Shanghai, Hangzhou acts as the modern capital of the Zhejiang Province, its serene vistas along West Lake having inspired poetry and folklore for generations. Hangzhou is also home to China’s top high-tech industries with a huge population, which has led to rapid urban renewal and several economic changes. These combined qualities of natural beauty and modernity converge to form a city which has fostered the development of new directors who have created, with modest budgets, strikingly fresh films ranging from documentaries to fiction narratives, from confessional video diaries to experimental flashes of ingenuity.

Our journey begins with the mysterious adventure of a 14-year-old girl during one humid summer in ‘Vanishing Days’ before charting a course through the entrancingly enigmatic coming-of-age tale ‘Suburban Birds’. ‘Frank Fang, A Hangzhou Observer’ regards the city streets and buildings with a cinephile’s giddy excitement. By journey’s end, the ‘Hangzhou New Talents’ shorts programme guides us through the private emotions of life nearly overlooked in Hangzhou, leaving us in quiet awe of a city whose secrets have only begun to be revealed.

The film season is totally free to audiences in the UK, and you can check out the full programme here. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Phil Mills
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