Curator's Note

Asian Media Access (AMA) proudly presents its 7^th annual Chinese Film Showcase this April in collaboration with the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival's 20th anniversary. This year's theme is "Tales of Cities: Transformation Through Camera Eyes." The Chinese Film Showcase forwards Asian Media Access' mission to use media, specifically film exhibition for social betterment. Film plays a significant role not only in culture, but also in shaping culture. These films not only help to extend Asian culture to mainstream audiences, but also provide a common forum for the Asian American communities in the Twin Cities.

The current crisis following the events of September 11 has created an environment of fear. AMA recognizes that the arts are an important source of hope, inspiration and healing and we planned the theme of this year series to honor the CITY itself, its power of recovery and the memories that nobody can take away.

"Tales of Cities" focuses on films that deal with the everyday reality of contemporary city life in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. This survey of contemporary Chinese cinema offers a comprehensive assessment of post-1989 films by the so-called Sixth Generation of filmmakers in China, as well as works by an even younger wave of filmmakers from Hong Kong and Taiwan. In China, contemporary cinema has undergone a tremendous transformation in recent years. While political pressures, financial difficulties, and competition from Hollywood have seriously impeded the development of state-sponsored, mainstream Chinese cinema, younger filmmakers have quietly begun to make films that are attracting increasing critical attention at home and abroad. More than sixty such young directors are working "outside" the state-owned studio system in various ways, making films with explosive creative energy and creating an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of cinema, the "Urban Generation."

Across the Pacific Rim, Taiwan and Hong Kong directors join their peers, taking a lead in focusing their cameras squarely on the everyday reality of contemporary Chinese city life. The subject matter and stylistic orientations of these films are intimately intertwined with the rapid modernization and social dislocation occurring in urban settings today. Films such as famous Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's newest film Millennium Mambo, Stanley Kwan's Lan Yu, the highly controversial and award winning film about a gay couple, Fish and Elephant, the first feature film ever made in China about the emotional and sexual relationship between two women, Betelnut Beauty, winner of a Silver Bear (Best Director) at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival, examines the lives of the lower class in the rapidly burgeoning urban environments. From the Queen to the Chief Executive provides microscopic studies of a society undergoing drastic changes and the people who suffer in the political transition. These films tackle a wide spectrum of social experiences and issues, such as homosexuality, family dysfunction, the effects of urbanization, as well as celebrations of the human spirit facing adversity.

This year Chinese Film Showcase has a new segment -- Free Sunday Series , the Independent Forum, features emergent artists' works. There is a palpable documentary pulse in the works of these young directors, aiming for a heightened sense of reality.

Enjoy this year special theme -- Tales from the Cities!!

Sincerely,
Ange Hwang
Curator