Season 4: Roots & Routes
A Village Across the World 跨越世界的村莊
A Village Across the World follows a group of foreign English-teaching volunteers into the cultural and emotional landscape of a Chinese village. Tucked away in the mountains, the village of Huangtian seems to be a poor, forgotten outpost unaffected by dynamic changes happening elsewhere in China. Yet the arrival of the volunteers reveals rich historical memories and changing power structures underlying the life of the village.
Black Cannon Incident 黑炮事件
A rare political satire, Black Cannon Incident was among the harbingers of the New Chinese Cinema that garnered international attention from the mid-1980s.
Lessons in Dissent 未夠秤
Filmed between 2011-2012, Lessons in Dissent follows highschool student Joshua Wong and his former schoolmate, Ma Jai, as they lead a protest against the proposed National Education curriculum in Hong Kong's schools, which they reject as patriotic indoctrination. Ma Jai (17), is a school dropout active in the League of Social Democrats; while Wong (15) founds ‘Scholarism’ to fight the proposals, but soon gets swept into the media spotlight.
The Trouble Shooters 顽主
Adapted from a novel by renowned Chinese writer Wang Shuo, The Troubleshooters is a comedy set in 1980s Beijing, about three friends who open a company specialising in fulfilling people’s dreams — even just for one day. Soon they are called upon to stage all kinds of wish-fulfilling scenarios to realise people’s fantasies, as well as trying solve their practical problems.
Floating Life 浮生
Mr Chan and his wife relocate from Hong Kong to suburban Australia in order to stay closer to their daughter, Bing, who lives in Sydney. Other members of the Chan family have remained in Germany and Hong Kong, but the parents of the Chan clan try to settle in Australia, along with two younger sons. However, their presence creates tension that threatens to fracture the family altogether.
North of Capricorn
Based on the eponymous book by historian Henry Reynolds, North of Capricorn is a new documentary that looks at a part of Australia like no other, north of the tropic of Capricorn. The deep North’s rich heritage goes way back before colonial times, when Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian traders came to fish for sea cucumbers or trade with the local Indigenous people, plantation owners kidnapped Pacific Island workers, and the fledgling pearl ind
My Name, My Family 我的姓氏我的家
To comply with her grandmother’s last wishes, Cun Xuan makes her first visit to their ancestor’s hometown, Heshun, in west Yunnan, the hometown of many overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Inspired to learn more about her own family, Cun crosses the border to Mandalay, Myanmar, to meet her uncle’s family. Spending time with them, she shares their rituals and gradually gains their acceptance.
Australian-Chinese cinema in conversation
This is a special screening of two Australian-Chinese films (China Dolls, directed by Tony Ayres, 1998, 30 mins and Chinese Take Away, directed by Mitzi Goldman, 2002, 52 mins).
China Dolls
Directed by Tony Ayres
1998, 30 mins, Australia
When China Met Africa 中非遇
A historic gathering of over fifty African heads of state in Beijing reverberates in Zambia, where the lives of three characters unfold. Mr Liu is one of thousands of Chinese entrepreneurs who have settled across the continent in search of new opportunities. He has just bought his fourth farm and business is booming. In northern Zambia, Mr Li, a project manager for a multinational Chinese company is upgrading Zambia's longest road.
