Double Bill: Please Vote For Me & New Beijing: Reinventing a City
VIEW EVENT DETAILSPart of the documentary film series
Visions of a New China
Double Bill (One ticket admits to both films below):
Please Vote For Me 竞选班长
Dir. CHEN Weijun 陈为军
2007. China/South Africa/Denmark. 58 min. HDCAM. English subtitles.
What would democracy look like in China? In Wuhan, a city in central China about the size of London, a third grade class experiments for the first time in selecting a Class Monitor through an election. As if nobody needs to be coached how to run an election campaign, candidates quickly go all-out to solicit votes from their fellow classmates. Backstabbing, bribing, bullying, fancy speeches…all sorts of aggressive tactics are employed to win votes. Tears are shed, feelings are hurt, and friendships are tested. What have these children learned from this experiment? Is democracy destined for exploitation?
"Equal parts charmer and exposé... It’s part American Idol, part Survivor." — Philip Kennicott, The Washington Post
"Thought-provoking and achingly hilarious." — Ronnie Scheib, Variety
Sterling Feature Award, Silverdocs Documentary Festival 2007
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CHEN Weijun is a documentary director and producer living in Wuhan, China. After graduating from the journalism program at Sichuan University in 1992 he joined the documentary production department of the Wuhan regional TV station. His first film, My Life Is My Philosophy, was nominated for best documentary of the year by the Chinese National Association of Broadcasters. In 2003 he completed To Live Is Better Than To Die, which was awarded a Peabody and Grierson award, as well as the Rudolf Vrba Award from the One World Festival.
New Beijing: Reinventing a City 新北京: 重塑一个城市
Dir. Georgia WALLACE-CRABBE
2010. Australia. 52 min. HDCAM. English subtitles.
Beijing has enthralled the world with major architectural wonders such as the National Stadium (Herzog & de Meuron), National Aquatics Center (PTW Architects), CCTV building (Rem Koolhaas), and National Theater (Paul Andreu). Behind the futuristic face of Beijing are old neighborhoods and hutongs (traditional narrow alleys) that have to be sacrificed for new developments. Heritage activist Zhang Jinqi and other volunteers scramble to document the fleeting old Beijing in a photography project. While Zhang mourns the past, major international architects express their visions for the renewed city. Working with a Chinese crew, Australian filmmaker Georgia Wallace-Crabbe captures the dilemma between development and preservation.
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Georgia WALLACE-CRABBE, a native of Australia, graduated from the Swinburne (VCA) Film and Television School in 1984. She has produced award winning documentaries, and has directed, line produced and production managed a number of dramas, television series, documentaries and short films. She has worked as Exhibitions Officer & Cinema Programmer at The State Film Centre of Victoria and for the Melbourne Film Festival as Programmer & Coordinator of the Youth Film Festival and the Short Film Competition. Georgia was the Founding Director of the WOW film Festival and President of Women in Film and Television NSW (95-98). Georgia has produced and line-produced numerous documentaries, short films and long form drama. She was a producer of Jabe Babe: A Heightened Life (2005), the winner of an AFI Award in 2005 for Best Documentary and an IF Award for Best Direction in a Documentary. She was coproducer of the French-Australian coproduction Shark Tracker (2002) MVC (France 5 & France 3).
The Visions of a New China film series is supported in part by a grant from the Open Society Foundations. Additional support is provided by the Center on U.S.-China Relations and New York State Council on the Arts.
Event Details
725 Park Avenue, New York, NY