Guggenheim Museum Presents Documentary Film Series

“Turn It On: China on Film, 2000–2017”

Curated by Ai Weiwei and Wang Fen, from October 13 to December 16, 2017

Rarely Seen Documentaries Screen in Conjunction with Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World

(NEW YORK, NY—August 24, 2017)—“Turn It On: China on Film, 2000–2017,” a series of documentary films from China cocurated by artist Ai Weiwei and filmmaker Wang Fen, will run for ten weeks at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum beginning October 13, 2017. Presented concurrently with the exhibition Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, the series features twenty rarely seen documentaries by more than a dozen filmmakers, including Ai Xiaoming, Huang Wenhai, Ji Dan, Tang Danhong, and others, whose work investigates the political, social, economic, and cultural conditions of contemporary China. Produced between 2000 and 2017, many of the films will be screened in the United States for the first time.

The works in this series offer urgent and often raw insight into issues of personal struggle and social justice existing in China today. Selected from hundreds of documentaries made in China over the past two decades, many of the films in “Turn It On” are made by writers and artists with little to no cinematography training, who have been able to take adavantage of the proliferation of digital video technology to tell stories about contemporary China even as they face severe challenges in producing and distributing their work. Despite the dramatic economic and societal changes in recent years, the state maintains control over all media, including films, and recent documentaries reflecting social conditions in China are often censored.

“This selection of documentary films reflects this harsh reality, which at times is difficult to accept, and even harder to watch,” Ai Weiwei remarks. The title he gave the film series suggests the matter-of-fact approach the filmmakers have taken to simply “turn on” their recording devices to observe and record the realities of their environment.

Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World is a major exhibition of contemporary art from China spanning the historic and transformative years 1989 to 2008; it is on view at the Guggenheim Museum from October 6, 2017, through January 7, 2018. The exhibition is organized by Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator, Asian Art, and Senior Advisor, Global Arts, at the Guggenheim, with guest cocurators Philip Tinari, Director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, and Hou Hanru, Artistic Director of MAXXI, National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome. “The conditions revealed in these films offer a context for understanding the work on view in Art and China,” Munroe says. “They also offer an appreciation of the expressive strategies that some of China’s boldest artists and filmmakers share.”

FILM SYNOPSES AND SCHEDULE

Screenings take place on Fridays and Saturdays, October 13 through December 16. Daytime screenings are free with museum admission and take place in the New Media Theater. Evening screenings at 6:30 pm include a Q&A session with filmmakers and require a ticket. $20, $15 members, $10 students. To purchase tickets and see the full schedule, please visit guggenheim.org/turniton.

EVENING SCREENINGS

Nightingale, Not the Only Voice 夜莺不是唯一的歌喉, 2000 (US premiere)
Directed by Tang Danhong 唐丹鸿
Mandarin with English subtitles, 180 min.
Friday, October 13, 6:30 pm

This film follows three marginal artists at the turn of the millennium, including the film’s director, on their shared journey through real and psychological oppression to self-discovery.

Discussion with Tang Danhong and Chip Rolley, Senior Director, Literary Programs, PEN America, to follow the film.

We the Workers 凶年之畔, 2017
Directed by Huang Wenhai 黄文海
Mandarin with English subtitles, 173 min.
Friday, November 3, 6:30 pm

The “China miracle” has been built on the backs of hundreds of millions of migrant laborers. This film features workers from different provinces spanning two generations who have resisted this force through activist struggle and action.

Discussion with Huang Wenhai and Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director, PEN America, to follow the film.

Fairytale 童话, 2007
Directed by Ai Weiwei 艾未未
Mandarin with English subtitles, 153 min.
Friday, December 15, 6:30 pm

In 2007 Ai Weiwei invited 1,001 people from China to travel to Kassel, Germany, as part of a participatory event for Documenta 12. Fairytale opens with the project’s inception and takes us through its full enactment, creating a series of portraits woven together by a single utopian event.

Discussion to follow the film; participants to be announced.

DAYTIME SCREENINGS

Nightingale, Not the Only Voice 夜莺不是唯一的歌喉, 2000
Directed by Tang Danhong 唐丹鸿
Mandarin with English subtitles, 180 min.
Friday, November 17, 12:40 pm
Also screens Friday, October 13, 6:30 pm (includes Q&A with director)

This film follows three marginal artists at the turn of the millennium, including the film’s director, on their shared journey through real and psychological oppression to self-discovery.

Fairytale 童话, 2007
Directed by Ai Weiwei 艾未未
Mandarin with English subtitles, 153 min.
Saturday, October 14, 12 pm
Also screens Friday, December 15, 6:30 pm (includes Q&A; participants to be announced)

In 2007 Ai Weiwei invited 1,001 people from China to travel to Kassel, Germany, as part of a participatory event for Documenta 12. Fairytale opens with the project’s inception and takes us through its full enactment, creating a series of portraits woven together by a single utopian event.

Disturbing the Peace 老妈蹄花, 2009
Directed by Ai Weiwei 艾未未
Mandarin with English subtitles, 80 min.
Saturday, October 14, 2:35 pm
Saturday, December 16, 1:30 pm

Following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, activist Tan Zuoren was arrested for investigating the deaths of thousands of children who died when government-built school buildings collapsed. Ai Weiwei, also investigating the situation, was invited to testify at Tan’s trial and subsequently suffered police harassment that culminated in a beating that caused cranial trauma. This film records Ai and his lawyers as they repeatedly travel to Chengdu to seek an explanation from the authorities.

Falling from the Sky 天降, 2009
Directed by Zhang Zanbo 张赞波
Mandarin and Hunan dialect with Chinese and English subtitles, 125 min.
Friday, October 20, 12 pm
Saturday, December 2, 12 pm

Beneath the veneer of celebrations for the 2008 Olympic Games, the 160,000 residents of Suining are forced to face their peculiar fate of satellite debris falling from the sky.

The Road 大路朝天, 2015
Directed by Zhang Zanbo 张赞波
Mandarin and Hunan dialect with Chinese and English subtitles, 94 min.
Friday, October 20, 2:30 pm
Friday, December 15, 12 pm

The construction of the Xu-Huai Highway in Hunan province has laid the landscape and many historical and cultural sites to waste. As this miracle of modern engineering takes shape, it offers an apt allegory for the dreams of a nation.

Dream Walking 梦游, 2005 (US premiere)
Directed by Huang Wenhai 黄文海
Mandarin with English subtitles, 86 min.
Saturday, October 21, 12 pm
Saturday, December 16, 12 pm

Four artists living on the margins of society whose passionate discussions belie their impoverished living conditions struggle with the uncertainty of their lives and artistic identities.

We the Workers 凶年之畔, 2017 (US premiere)
Directed by Huang Wenhai 黄文海
Mandarin with English subtitles, 173 min.
Saturday, October 21, 1:30 pm
Also screens Friday, November 3, 6:30 pm (includes Q&A with director)

The “China miracle” has been built on the backs of hundreds of millions of migrant laborers. This film features workers from different provinces spanning two generations who have resisted this force through activist struggle and action.

Storm under the Sun 红日风暴, 2009
Directed by Peng Xiaolian 彭小莲 and S. Louisa Wei 魏时煜
Mandarin and English with English subtitles, 137 min.
Friday, October 27, 12 pm
Friday, December 1, 2 pm

Animation, archival footage, and interviews depict the persecution of Hu Feng, a renowned writer and literary critic who championed artistic freedom and was denounced and jailed during one of Mao Zedong’s purges of intellectuals in the 1950s.

Readymade 现成品, 2009
Directed by Zhang Bingjian 张秉坚
Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles, 79 min.
Friday, October 27, 2:20 pm
Saturday, November 18, 2:30 pm

Mao Zedong died in 1976, but his impersonators are alive and well. This film documents two people who resemble Mao and assume Mao roles in contemporary entertainment.

When the Bough Breaks 危巢, 2013
Directed by Ji Dan 季丹
Mandarin with English subtitles, 110 min.
Saturday, October 28, 12 pm
Friday, November 24, 1:40 pm

With rapid urban development spreading across Beijing, a family who scavenges a living from the landfills that once covered the city’s Daxing District struggles against the vagaries of so much change.

Plastic China 塑料王国, 2016
Directed by Wang Jiuliang 王久良
Mandarin with English subtitles, 82 min.
Saturday, October 28, 1:55 pm
Saturday, December 2, 2:30 pm

Chronicling the lives of two families operating a plastic recycling facility, Plastic China examines global consumption and culture through the eyes and hands of those who handle its refuse.

Petition 上访, 2009
Directed by Zhao Liang 赵亮
Mandarin with English subtitles, 315 min.
Friday, November 3, 12 pm
Friday, December 8, 12 pm

In this long-form documentary filmed over more than a decade, petitioners at Beijing South Railway Station Petition Office are confronted by contradictions in a system intended to protect citizens from legal injustice and political violation.

Jiabiangou Elegy: Life and Death of the Rightists 夹边沟祭事, 2017
Directed by Ai Xiaoming 艾晓明
Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles, 409 min.
Saturday, November 4, 12 pm
Saturday, December 9, 12 pm

Survivors of the Jiabiangou labor camp and their children recount the persecution of over three thousand people sent for re-education through labor during the Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957–59.

Karamay 克拉玛依, 2010
Directed by Xu Xin 徐辛
Mandarin with English subtitles, 356 min.
Friday, November 10, 12 pm

Archival footage and personal accounts from survivors and parents whose children were victims of the Karamay Friendship Theater fire of 1994 reveal the lingering emotional impact of a tragedy.

Garden in Heaven 天堂花园, 2005 (US premiere)
Directed by Ai Xiaoming 艾晓明 and Hu Jie 胡杰
Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles, 200 min.
Saturday, November 11, 12 pm

After the date rape and murder of her daughter, a mourning mother struggles for justice in a society that denies legal recourse for sexual violence.

In Search of Lin Zhao’s Soul 寻找林昭的灵魂, 2004
Directed by Hu Jie 胡杰
Mandarin with English subtitles, 116 min.
Saturday, November 11, 3:20 pm
Friday, December 1, 12 pm

This film pieces together the life, path of resistance, and death of Lin Zhao, a fearless critic of the Communist Party during the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957–59.

Prisoners in Freedom City 自由城的囚徒, 2007
Directed by Hu Jia 胡佳 and Zeng Jinyan 曾金燕
Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles, 36 min.
Friday, November 17, 12 pm
Saturday, November 25, 2:55 pm

Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan are simultaneously the subjects and documentarians in this film that records their everyday experience while Hu was under house arrest from 2004 to 2008.

Apuda 阿仆大的守候, 2010 (US premiere)
Directed by He Yuan 和渊
Naxi dialect with English subtitles, 145 min.
Saturday, November 18, 12 pm

An intimate portrait of the daily life of a man and his son caring for each other as they face struggles with illness and intellectual disability.

Silver City 白银, 2009
Directed by Li Peifeng 李沛峰
Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles, 98 min.
Friday, November 24, 12 pm
Friday, December 15, 1:35 pm

Residents of a rural village along the West-East Gas Pipeline project are removed, by force and deceit, from the land that has sheltered them for generations.

Sanlidong 三里洞, 2006
Directed by Lin Xin 林鑫
Mandarin with English subtitles, 172 min.
Saturday, November 25, 12 pm

A poetic portrayal of the abandoned Sanlidong coal mine and the workers still living there fifty years after the boom of China’s socialist industrialization.

“Turn It On: China on Film, 2000-2017” is organized by the Guggenheim Museum in conjunction with Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World. Presented in collaboration with PEN America. Support is provided by The Hayden Family Foundation. A program of the Sackler Center for Arts Education.

ABOUT THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION

Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The Guggenheim network that began in the 1970s when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, was joined by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, has since expanded to include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (opened 1997) and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (currently in development). The Guggenheim Foundation continues to forge international collaborations that celebrate contemporary art, architecture, and design within and beyond the walls of the museum, including the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative, Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative. More information about the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation can be found at guggenheim.org.

VISITOR INFORMATION

Admission: adults $25, students/seniors (65+) $18, members and children under 12 free. The Guggenheim’s free app, available with admission or by download to personal devices, offers an enhanced visitor experience. The app features content on special exhibitions as well as access to more than 1,600 works in the Guggenheim’s permanent collection. Additionally, information about the museum’s landmark building is available in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Verbal Description guides for select exhibitions are also included for visitors who are blind or have low vision. The Guggenheim app is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Museum Hours: Sun–Wed, 10 am–5:45 pm; Fri, 10 am–5:45 pm; Sat, 10 am–7:45 pm; closed Thurs. On Saturdays, beginning at 5:45 pm, the museum hosts Pay What You Wish. For general information, call 212 423 3500 or visit the museum online at: guggenheim.org or guggenheim.org/social