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Wednesday, Nov 12, 2008
7:00 PM
Fuck Cinema
A founding figure of independent Chinese documentary filmmaking, Wu Wenguang turns the camera on cinema itself in this deliciously spiked investigation of a new battleground between haves and have-nots: in this case, between those on opposite sides of the Beijing Film Studio gates. Wang is an eager young man with drive, determination, and a hand-scrawled script; the only problem is that he's one of thousands with similar traits. Wu tags along as Wang hectically scrambles from meeting to meeting, discovering that the Chinese film industry-like Hollywood, or any industry-has its share of roadblocks, bad ideas, and windbags (“Why don't you make the heroine the secret girlfriend of a billionaire?” someone suggests). The three-hour documentary also sits with young women as they audition for the role of a lifetime (a prostitute), and with a pirate DVD seller whose collection could fuel any repertory house. A Chinese counterpart to recent filmmaking deconstructions like Operation Filmmaker or American Movie, Fuck Cinema leaves one thinking exactly what its title suggests.
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