May Festival 2009
27 April to 5 May, 2009
Organizer: Caochangdi Workstation/ Living Dance Studio
Co-organizers: Beijing Storm, BORNEOCO/ CultureXpress, The Netherlands
Support:
DOEN FOUNDATION, The Netherlands / China Independent Documentary Archive Website / Borneoco/CultureXpress Foundation, The Netherlands / Swiss Films / Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council / Public DV Magazine Contemporary Art & Investment Magazine / Center of Documentary Film Archive / Iberia Center for Contemporary Art / Independent Film Archive of ICCA
Work team:
Curators: Wu Wenguang, Wen Hu i/ Project manager: Mao Ran / Co-Programmers: Constance Vos, Dineke Koerts (The Netherlands)Stage Manager: Zheng Fuming / Technical Director: Su Ming / Coordinator: Xie Lina / Publicity: Zhang Xiaoyan, Yan Lifang / Graphic designer: Xie Lina / Translation: Marilyn Ong, Dong Haiying / English interpreters: Leslie Tai, Dong Haiying, Xu Yan, Wawa / Program assistants: Odette Scott?Zou Xueping, Li Xianmin / Sound/Video: Wang Wenli / Light: Jia Xiaonan / Volunteers: Pei Yanfeng, Pei Huifeng, Chen Yi, Huang Chaojun
This year marks the 4th continuous year of Caochangdi’s “May Festival”. As before, the festival will feature two main components: Performance Space and a Film Forum. The Performance Space segment will include the 8 newest works from the 2009 Young Choreographers’ Project. The choreographers of these 8 pieces come from Beijing, Shanghai, Wuxi, and Tianjin, and are mostly under 30 years of age. The works demonstrate the artists’ first forays into creating independent performance art and choreography, though many of them are already performers, or have participated or performed in previous Young Choreographers’ Projects. May is a time of youth; our hope is, in the 4th year of the Young Choreographers’ Project, these even more youthful performers will bring us a breath of fresh air.
Our “Documentary Forum” will also follow the form of previous years. The new films from the Villager Documentary Project are highly recommended. Since the Project began at Caochangdi in 2005, it continued with the villagers’ first feature length documentaries, all titled “My Village 2006”. This year, their second films, titled “My Village 2007” will be screened here once again. In addition, the “New Works of Independent Documentary in China” and “Student Short Films” segments will continue on as part of our Film Forum.
Following the success of screening Peter Liechti’s films at our “Crossing Festival” in October, we will be collaborating once again with Swiss Films, and under their generous support have been able to invite another Swiss director, Edna Politi, to screen her films.
Providing opportunities for training and discussion regarding creative processes has always been our top priority at Caochangdi. This year, the Village Documentary directors will take part in editing workshops from the beginning to the end of April, during which they will finalize the edits for their newest films. Swiss director Edna Politi will also host a five-day Documentary Workshop, offering direction for rough cuts of new films submitted by new documentary directors.