Unspoken Cinema

Masterclass with Wang Bing Edinburgh International Film Festival  : 24 June 2012 (90 mins) From his first film, West of the Tracks (2003), to his latest work, Wang Bing has brought rigour and compassion to the archaeology of the physical and social changes China has undergone since the Cultural Revolution. Not only a pivotal figure in Chinese documentary filmmaking, Wang is an artist whose work with time and space marks him as one of the most significant filmmakers of our time. At this masterclass, co-sponsored with the Scottish Documentary Institute, Wang will share his insights. Be sure also to see Wang’s Fengming: A Chinese Memoir, The Ditch, and Coal Money and Brutality Factory, all screening at EIFF. Complementary screenings at EIFF : Coal Money (2008/WANG Bing/France) 53' Brutality Factory ; segment in omnibus : O Estado do Mondo (2007/WANG Bing/Portugal) 14' [ video ] [24 Jun | 13:20] Fengming: A Chinese Memoir / He Fengming (2007/WANG Bing/China, Hong Kon...

Fogo (2012/Yulene Olaizola/Mexico/Canada) 1h01' Cannes 2012 - Quinzaine des Réalisateurs The deterioration of a small community in Fogo Island is forcing its inhabitants to leave and resettle. Places once occupied by humans are now becoming part of the tundra landscape. In spite of a condemn future, there are some residents who decide to remain, holding on to their memories and grieving for the past, when life in Fogo was different. Interview : "Basically in those kind of shots, where they are just walking and we are shooting the landscape, it took us a long time to set up the camera, to decide the place and to frame... So we were working on that for a few hours and then I just gave them directions from which point to which point to go. And everything else was all improvisation. They just had to walk. When I talk about improvisation, it's when they talk to eachothers in the dialogues. So the dialogues are really improvised. [..] The film is about life, it's ...

"Quoique le cinéma n'ait pas encore produit beaucoup d'ouvrages qui soient de part en part  œuvres d'art, quoique l'engouement pour les vedettes, le sensationnel des changements de plan, ou des péripéties, l'intervention des belles photographies ou celle d'un dialogue spirituel soient pour le film autant de tentations où il risque de s'engluer et de trouver le succès en omettant les moyens d'expression les plus propres au cinéma – malgré donc toutes ces circonstances qui font qu'on n'a guère vu jusqu'ici de film qui soit pleinement film, on peut entrevoir ce que serait un tel ouvrage, et l'on va voir que, comme toute oeuvre d'art, il serait encore quelque chose que l'on perçoit. Car enfin ce qui peut constituer la beauté cinématographique, ce n'est ni l'histoire en elle-même, que la prose raconterait très bien, ni à plus forte raison les idées qu'elle peut suggérer, ni enfin ces tics, ces manies, ces procédés pa...