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 Film Archive (WWW.CIDFA.COM) / 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.
May Festival 2008
Time & Date:26 April to 5 May, 2008
Venue:Caochangdi Workstation
Organizer:Caochangdi Workstation/ Living Dance Studio
Co-organizers: Beijing Storm, BORNEOCO/ CultureXpress?the Netherlands?
Support:
DOEN FOUNDATION, the Netherlands
China Independent Documentary Film Archive (www.cidfa.com)
Borneoco/CultureXpress Foundation, the Netherlands
the Public DV Magazine
the Contemporary Art & Investment Magazine
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to China
Goethe-Institute China
the Culture Programme of the European Union
Chin-A-Moves coop-Europa
Kunststiftung NRW
Center of Documentary Film Archive
Iberia Center for Contemporary Art
Independent Film Archive of ICCA
Caochangdi Workstation is pleased to present the May Festival 2008, now in its third year. As in previous years, the festival comprised of two main programs: PERFORMANCE SPACE and FILM FORUM. In this year's PERFORMANCE SPACE, eight young choreographers from Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Lanzhou will present their most recent works as participants of Caochangdi Workstation's Young Choreographers Project 2008.
PERFORMANCE SPACE is proud to present three lectures by international dance and theatre directors. Lectures will discuss trends and recent developments in contemporary theater production in Europe and China.
Also on the PERFORMANCE SPACE program is the launching of Chin-A Moves, a Sino-European exchange project in the field of contemporary dance made possible with support of the Culture Programme of the European Union. The Chinese part of Chin-A Moves will start with a young choreographers exchange project with twelve young dance makers from China and Europe. The six Chinese choreographers, who are invited to take part, all participated in CCD’s previous Young Choreographers Projects (2006 and 2007). The six participants from Europe are selected by theatre and festival directors from the participating European countries. Chin-A Moves has also invited Indian choreographer Jayachandran Palazhy (Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts) as the exchange program's artistic facilitator. Jay will also be the mentor of this year's Young Choreographers Project.
FILM FORUM will carry on the legacy of previous years' events, with documentary film screenings in center focus. Especially recommended is Caochangdi Workstation's China Village Self-Governance Project. Three years after the project's inception in 2005, Caochangdi Workstation is pleased to present three new just-completed feature-length films by the villagers. Each film is aptly entitled "My Village 2006", featuring real-life stories from villages in Shanxi, Shandong, and Beijing suburbs. Village filmmakers and fellow villagers, behind the same lens, portray a vivid reality that takes the viewer into their very own backyard. There will be a special screening of independent documentary program, "New Works in Documentary Film," featuring the lives of members of a peasant household from the West Haigu area in the Northwest region, and a verite portrait of a junior high school student from Dazhou, Sichuan province in the Southwest region, which will allow us to submerge into deeper experience of their realities.
To celebrate the diversity of the film/video visual storytelling medium, we will also be presenting the "Experimental Video and Student Short Films" program during this year's FILM FORUM.
This year, renowned Dutch documentary filmmaker Frank Scheffer, will also be gracing FILM FORUM with a retrospective screening of four of his most representative films. For the past twenty years, Frank Scheffer has created countless documentary film achievements, dedicated to documenting the contemporary experimental music genre and its musicians. Sponsored by the Netherlands Consulate in China and Dutch DOEN Foundation, Caochangdi Workstation is honored to have Frank Scheffer, as co-director, alongside Wu Wenguang, of this year's Young Documentary Film Training Project.
On-the-spot, hands-on production training continues to be one of Caochangdi Workstation's most important emphases during May Festival. China Village Self-Governance Project is a long-term project Caochangdi Workstation began in 2005. This year's festival will be hosting a post-production training workshop for villager documentary filmmakers, who have been invited to come to Beijing to participate in this year's May Festival events and will have a chance to edit their final film projects. Forty participants of last year's "Young Documentary Film Training Project," from all over China, will also be in attendance. The May Festival strives to provide a platform and interface for the creative exchanges that will help prepare last year's participants to enter into phase two of their documentary productions.
May Festival 2007
Organizer:Caochangdi Workstation, Living Dance Studio, Beijing
Co-organizers: Goethe Institute China, BORNEOCO (the Netherlands)
Support: China Independent Documentary Film Archive(www.cidfa.com) . DOEN Foundation (the Netherlands) .Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to China, Holland Film
Curators: Wu Wenguang, Wen Hui
Date: 29 April to 6 May, 2007
Location: Caochangdi Workstaion, Beijing
This spring of 2007, Caochangdi Workstation is delighted to present it’s second May Festival. As in the previous year, the festival consists of two parts: Performance Space and Film Forum. In Performance Space, fourteen young choreographers from Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Guangzhou will be presenting their most recent works as participants of the second Caochangdi Workstation’s Young Choreographer Project. Performance Space also hosts numerous lectures from artists around the world. Zhang Xian, a theater director from Shanghai, and Ong Keng Sen, artistic director from TheatreWorks of Singapore, will lecture on creating for the stage. Yinan Li, a stage researcher from Germany, and Maria M. Schwaegermann, Artistic Director of Zuercher Theater Speaktakel, will also speak on trends and new directions of contemporary performance art.
“With Pina Bausch” will present videos of FRüHLINGSOPFER and CAFE MüLLER, two masterpiece of the German choreographer Pina Bausch, a prestigious figure in the world’s dance scene. Peter Stamer, a German dance critic and dramaturge, will speak on Pina Bausch’s Gestures. Stamer will help the audience understand Bausch’s artistic approaches, styles and their social implications by placing them both in historical and a present-day contexts.? This special event gives the audience an opportunity to experience Pina Bausch here at Caochangdi even though she herself may not be here. With Pina Bausch will also host talks given by two visiting German stage specialists. These talks will usher in the “Exchange Program of Performance Art between China and Germany”, a joint project between Caochangdi Workstation and Goethe Institute, China.
Film Forum 2007 will carry on the legacy from last year and will highlight a “Documentary Unit”, which will present China’s latest independent documentary film productions of the year. An “Experimental and Student Shorts Video” screening and a “Dance Cinema” screening, together with the “Dutch Documentary Films” screening will diversify and enrich this year’s Film Forum.
Participants of May Festival 2007 should expect not simply to observe artistic presentations but also to engage in discussions and the exchange of ideas between stage artists, filmmakers, specialists and audience. Discussions are especially important for the Young Choreographer Project, which was launched by Caochangdi Workstation in 2006 to encourage young Chinese stage artists to produce creative works. In 2006, the project invited Arco Renz, a German choreographer based in Brussels, to be it’s arts mentor. This year, the project is proud to have renowned theater director Ong Keng Sen as its arts mentor and German stage specialists Peter Stamer and Yinan Li as its dramaturges.
On-the-spot trainings are always of great importance to the May Festival. Apart from the Body Workshop, facilitated by Peter Stamer, the festival will also host a post-production training workshop for villager documentary filmmakers. Village Documentary Project is a long-term project Caochangdi Workstation began in 2005. Since the completion of their first films, the villager filmmakers have continued to film their villages, and Caochangdi continues to support these projects. A number of them will be attending the May Festival, during which time they will be able to start editing their new films while participating in other events.
At the same time, a new project aimed at training young documentary filmmakers will kick off during the May Festival. At this time, forty young people from around the nation will embark on a new journey in documentary filmmaking.
Documentary Furom: May Festival(2006)
Organizer:
Website of www.cidfa.com (China Independent Documentary Film Archive)
Caochangdi Workstation
Beijing Storm
Curator's Notes:
In May of 2006, Caochangdi Arts Workstation will celebrate its one-year anniversary. We have chosen to name this year’s exhibition “May” to commemorate this milestone. Within theWorkstation’s framework of “Performance and Image,” this year’s festival showcases works created by young people.
The Image Forum showcases independent documentaries also created by young people. For many of these young creators, this is only their first or second time making a documentary. They come from various professional backgrounds, including freelancers in film and television, designers, and schoolteachers. The subject matter of these works varies as well: One occurs in Heilongjiang Province; one documents a village election in Hubei Province; one records four years of Beijing's 798 Factory Art District events; one explores the hopes, dreams, and love of a man running a pirated DVD enterprise in Shenzhen; one work shows the loony antics of some artists from Henan Province’s Nanyang city. Students from the China Art Academy’s New Media Art Department, students majoring in New Media Art at the Beijing Film Academy, and film majors from the Yunnan Art Institute also contributed documentaries, shorts, and experimental shorts that they have worked on in school.
In addition to the youth showcase, this Image Forum also presents works by villagers from the countryside who used photography and film to document village elections, village self-governance, or daily life in their villages. Finally, we will present documentaries by filmmakers of all ages but whose works nevertheless are in keeping with this year’s celebration of youth.
For this year's festival, we also have arranged lectures on such topics as theater, dance, documentary film, and photography. German choreographer Arco Renz from Belgium will introduce contemporary dance in Belgium. Swiss performance artist Daniel Aschwanden from Austria and German performance curator / critic Peter Stamer will talk about their works. In addition, theater director Zhang Xian will lecture about theater; film producer and critic Zhang Yaxuan will talk about young film creators; experimental film artist and critic Li Zhenhua will talk about the young generation of contemporary Chinese experimental filmmakers and artists; and visual artist and theater director Wang Jianwei will lecture about her multimedia visual art / theater works. German choreographer Arco Renz from Brussels and the Living Dance Studio’s Wen Hui will be hosting workshops and master classes throughout the festival.
by WU Wenguang