Beyond the Frozen Point: Stories from the North
Time: 21-30 August, 2015
Venus:
1933 Contemporary, 1933 Micro Theatre (Unite1-311, 1-201, No. 611 Liyang Road, Shanghai)
Shanghai Film Museum (No. 595 Caoxi Bei Lu, Shanghai)
More info on wechat link and ticketing info (in Chinese) here.
Contact: 86 21-32582558
Organizers: Tromsø International Film Festival, Shanghai International Culture Association.
Supported by: Norwegian Consulate General in Shanghai and Norwegian Embassy in Beijing,Swedish Consulate General in Shanghai and Swedish Embassy in Beijing, Finnish Film Institute, Norwegian Film Institute , International Sami Film Institute(ISF)
Co-Production Office in France.
Co-organizers: 1933 Contemporary, 1933 Left Bank Shanghai, Shanghai Film Museum, SuddenlyArt Consultant
In collaboration with the Tromsø International Film Festival, joint curated by Li Shanshan, Wang Kaimei and Henning Rosenlund, we are pleased to present to Chinese audiences Beyond Frozen Point: Stories from the North, a film screening program. We will show 17 shorts and documentary films, all recently made by artists from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Greenland in Denmark and Russia. The common root of these films is the breath-taking nature of the far north and the narratives are all about people living there. For the first time in China, a film event dedicated entirely to the films from the North Polar Region is presented. This is a rare opportunity for the Chinese audience to experience the magnificent nature of the Polar Region on the big screen and to get to know the people living there through films.
The North Polar Region, with its massive land and arctic icecap above the North Arctic Circle, is one of the coldest places on the earth. The land is frozen all year round, and the high latitude makes for 24-hours days in summer and long, dark nights in winter. In recent years human activities have increased rapidly in the chase for natural resources and new territories. Meanwhile, the threat of global warming and climate change has created new disputes within international politics. Despite its seeming distance from the world’s financial center, the region north of the 60 degree latitude is a hotspot that evokes questions concerning our common future.
The North Polar Region is the home of polar indigenous settlements, such as the Sami in Scandinavia, Ewenks in China and the Nenets in Russia. The harsh nature of the polar region shapes the unique characters of these people. Their quietness and roughness go hand in hand with their kindness and openness. In today’s globalized world, even inhabitants of the North Pole inevitably share many experiences with the rest of the world. Here is where the local meets the global and the traditional meets the modern. The preservation of indigenous culture, protectionism against outsiders, and the prices to be paid for environment and wealth-gaining are some very urgent issues for the Polar Region. Naturally, these are also sources of inspiration for artists and creative minds living here.
The film screening is divided into 4 sections: Seasons, Strange North, People and Sami Voices, each giving a different entrance to the North and its people. The films from the Sami Voice section are made by filmmakers with Sami origins. It is appealing to see how these young people reflect their indigenous history and tradition in the contemporary society through music and films.
Meanwhile as we move our sight towards the east, on asimilarly high latitude, we see the frozen lands of Northern China. Minorities such as the Ewenks live in the northeastern forest, subsisting by reindeer herding. Much like the Samis of the North Pole, they too face problems with the preservation of their culture in the new era. Harsh nature has given the Northern people a special sense of humor and survival skills, all very much linked with the frozen land they come from. We chose to present here 4 Chinese films as a response to the Stories from the North.
Finally we are very honored to show the 71st Venice Film Festival Golden Lion winner “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting On Existence” to conclude our search for Nordic identity and interrogation of the meaning of life.The Swedish director Roy Anderson here delivers a slow-paced humanistic story built on observations of the absurdity of ordinary life, expressed in memorable images.
Furthermore, we will extend the notion of a cold climate as a physical experience as well as a state of mind, showing a visual art exhibition of video art and multimedia installations with participating artists from Sweden, Norway and China to hold concurrent exhibitions in Shanghai. Destruction, desolation, disillusionment, and dystopia are some of the keywords of the artworks in the exhibition that in first hand deal with the physicality of low temperature. However, the journey is also filled with images of love, empathy, faith and unexpected discoveries at the northernmost end of the earth. The work shown emerges from the artists’ research of classical painting and texts as well as indigenous mythologies, from personal emotion to collective forms of remembrance, and eventually the study of the structure of capitalism’s production line in the context of global economy. The artworks reflect the geographical territory near to the North Pole, and meditate over some timeless fundamental questions. Artists included are Are&Sturla Pilskog (Norway), Elle Marja Eira (Norway), Liselotte Wajstedt (Sweden), Tobias Bernstrup (Sweden), Li Xiaofei (China), Wang Rui (China), Tang Bohua (China), and Yi Lian (China).
The opening of the film screening will be held at the Shanghai Film Museum on the 21st August. Sami artist and singer Elle Marja Eira will performe traditional Sami joiking at the opening. The films will be shown in both Shanghai Film Museum and the 1933 Micro Theatre in the coming two weeks following with meetings with Nordic and Chinese filmmakers after the screenings. The opening of the art exhibition will be held on the 22rd of August at 1933 Contemporary Art and the exhibition will last for one month.
The film screening has also planned a China tour. After Shanghai, the films will continue to Beijing, Xi’an, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
