Monet, Max, Elen, Tina - Post 3

         To further our understanding of Bampfa we had decided to make the short trek to the theater and view the artwork and films that Bampfa had to offer. While there we were able to see the Spiritual Mountains exhibit which features the artist Wesley Tongson (1957-2012). Tongson was a Hong Kong artist who mainly dealt with paintings that used traditional Chinese paintings as inspiration. Within his paintings he deals with landscapes, different forms of painting such as finger or ink, and also worked with concepts such as spirituality. At the moment BAMPFA is constructing many of the new exhibits so the Spiritual Mountains one was one of the few that were available for us to see. However, we were also able to see many other Chinese arts from the past, on their website BAMPFA remarked on this choice of combining these collections of art work to “demonstrate the relationship between his genius and that of past masters”. While this class is dealing with Chinese cinema as an art form I still found it necessary to mention the work of Wesley Tongson, not only is BAMPFA showcasing the importance of Chinese art within the museum but they are also showcasing the beauty of Chinese cinema. At the moment there is a film series being played at BAMPFA called Chinese Portraits running from March 5th to March 17th 2022. While the series is on the shorter side, there’s still many films that offer insight into Chinese culture. This film series is being presented with the help of the Townsend Center’s In Dialogue with China: Art, Culture, Politics and curated by Kathryn MacKay. The goal of this series is to bring in Chinese and Western panelists to talk about the state of “Chinese art, culture, and politics”.  These films are able to bring a well rounded perspective on China and the people within it, creating portraits of their lives. 

         Our group had the pleasure of watching a couple of films within this series. Max was able to see Chinese Portrait directed by Wang Xiashuai released in 2018. This film follows a filmmaker while they capture portraits of various Chinese people and the jobs that they occult such as students, miners, factory workers, and farmers. The film is able to show the people responsible for society within 60 carefully put-together shots that show different aspects of culture. Surveillance, food, family, labor, nature, animals, construction, religion, daily life, and more. These shots bring up concepts of the dichotomies of destruction and power struggles between the youth and elders. While the concepts of the film were interesting it was also fascinating the editing and camera work used within the film. Max was able to time the scenes, they mostly lasted 1-3 minutes in length letting you take in the portrait before you. One scene that struck Max was a portrait of boys in a restaurant while an elderly group of people were smoking by them. The aesthetics of the film were noticeably different from anything else seen before, mixing the use of film and digital, having each scene be divided by a black screen or the burning of a film. The sound within the film was able to arrive before the music almost creating a disconnect between image and sound, it allowed a transition from scene to scene. Within the scene in the restaurant you could see a few of these elements being played with along with long takes that let you take in the scene and further delve into the portrait and notice little things you might not have seen before. One thing Max had seen was the small smile on a young boy’s face that broke the awkward tension that the scene had initially created. These portraits created were able to show a side of China that is not regularly shown, especially since the start of the pandemic. 

         One of the reasons we find this class so important is because for many years film was not a safe space for Asian people and during the pandemic many Asian Americans felt unsafe because of the hatred being outwardly shown. Before we were able to talk to Stephen Gong about Asian Americans in the media there was a bit of confusion within our group on what we wanted to do with our project. We wanted to talk about more than just the series that BAMPFA is able to put on. After hearing Stephen Gong speak of the stereotypes and hatred that once inhabited the film industry and the people that worked in order to change that narrative we decided that we wanted to talk about how BAMPFA is using their platform to show film that actively combats the racist nature of films from the past. With our project we plan on interviewing the curator for the film series Chinese Portraits, Kathryn MacKay. Within the interview we want to talk to her about how she chose these films, the work these films do of showcasing Chinese art and culture, and the stereotypes within film of the 1910s to 1960s that ran rampant and how these films actively combat them. We also want to do more research on Chinese people within film and the biases that had to be overcome and how film is changing to reflect a more multicultural society. 

         We also wanted to include a short video of Monet and Max within BAMPFA, filmed by Max. It shows the beautiful work within the museum. We look forward to visiting the museum frequently and learning more about Chinese culture and film. Thank you for reading!

 

- Monet, Max, Elen, Tina