L'ECAL AT VISIONS DU RÉEL: MASTERCLASS & ECAL FILMS
12–21.04.2024
Nyon

MASTERCLASS: JIA ZHANG-KE 

Cinéaste, Chine 

Moderated by Jean-Michel Frodon, film critic and journalist 

A leading figure in independent Chinese cinema, and contemporary cinema more broadly, Jia Zhang-Ke will be presenting a masterclass exploring his captivating and multifaceted oeuvre which examines the history of his country and the characters who inhabit it. A retrospective of his films will run throughout the festival edition. 

Born in 1970 in the mining region of Shanxi, bordered by the Great Wall of China, Jia Zhang-Ke is a leading light in contemporary cinema. He belongs to a generation of Chinese filmmakers who were profoundly affected by the Tiananmen Square protests. His diverse filmography, which comprises more than 20 short and feature works, borrows elements from both genre and non-fiction cinema. Switching from taught thrillers to documentaries and encompassing a myriad hybrid formats woven together by non-professional actors, fictional works on a canvas of reality, and fantasies bypassing otherwise restrained stories, Jia Zhang-Ke has spent two decades creating a filmography as coherent as it is shifting. 

His stylistically diverse oeuvre deploys the full range of cinematographic techniques (16 and 35mm, DV, HD, etc.). Approaching his subject as a visual artist, Jia Zhang-Ke offers a subtle and subversive immersion in Chinese society, imbued with a sublimated realism. Resisting censorship and tirelessly defending the cultural significance of his country’s cinematic output, Jia Zhang-Ke weaves long-form, epic-style stories to explore personal and multifaceted journeys that challenge the notion of dissolution of the individual within the national narrative.  

Ever willing to wrestle with the realities of China’s recent history, the filmmaker offers a profoundly humanist representation that draws on memories and recollections. To achieve this, Jia Zhang-Ke creates a narrative polysemy that focuses its gaze on the everyday lives of ordinary people living in “intermediate towns” scattered between the rural life and that of the country’s burgeoning megacities. 

By doing so, Jia Zhang-Ke’s films dissect the promises and mirages offered under the forced march of modernisation in effect since the 1960s. They examine the effects of this collective story, specifically the imposition of state capitalism on human beings, by providing a romantic and sensitive counter-narrative. An essential and uncompromising filmography that has often fallen foul of the government’s strict censorship regime. 

An event in collaboration with the Cinémathèque suisse. 

Text: Visions du Réel  

FILMS 

As part of Visions du Réel, from April 12 to 21, 6 films by ECAL's Cinema Department and alumni are scheduled.  

SECTION OPENING SCENES   

Rose à la ferme, directed by Giulia Goy, Bachelor Cinéma 2023 diploma film, image by Pierre Daendliker, Bachelor Cinéma ECAL alumni. 

PROJECTIONS SPÉCIALES  

Paléo, une odyssée 1976-2022, series of four short films by current students in the ECAL/HEAD Master of Cinema program. 

La maison 5 étoiles, directed by Marie-Eve Hildebrand and Agnese Laposi, sound by Massimo Del Gaudio, Bachelor Cinéma ECAL alumni. 

Foudre, directed by Carmen Jaquier, Bachelor Cinéma ECAL and Master Cinéma ECAL/HEAD alumni. 

COMPÉTITION NATIONALE  

Feu feu feu, directed by Pauline Jeanbourquin, image by Augustin Losserand, sound by Theodora Menthonnex, Bachelor Cinéma ECAL alumni. 

Mes amis espagnols, directed by Adrien Bordone, Bachelor Cinéma ECAL alumni.