Committed Cinema: Zhou Hao

September 30-October 2, 2016

Acclaimed documentarian Zhou Hao visits Berkeley to present and discuss his films, which examine the impact of the massive social and economic changes in China.

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Chinese Mayor
Chinese Mayor

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Films
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Events

Past Films

The Chinese Mayor
Zhou Hao
China, 2015
BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Friday, September 30 7:30 PM
Zhou Hao and Rachel Stern in conversation.
An idealistic mayor hopes to change his city’s fortunes by transforming it into a center for cultural tourism in Zhou Hao’s fascinating look at politics and power in contemporary China.
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Cotton
Zhou Hao
China, 2014
Sunday, October 2 7 PM
Zhou Hao and Rachel Stern in conversation.
The lives and (mis)fortunes of the unseen labor behind China’s cotton industry are profiled in Zhou’s 2014 documentary. Winner, Best Documentary, Taiwan Golden Horse Film Festival.
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Committed Cinema: Zhou Hao

Unparalleled Access

September 30-October 2, 2016

Filmmaker in Person

After a career as a photojournalist for China’s national news group, Xinhua News Agency, and the influential newspaper Southern Weekly, Zhou Hao applied his keen eye and reporting acumen to documentary filmmaking. For the last fifteen years Zhou has consistently honed his direct observational style with each successive documentary, six in total. Zhou’s films are informative without being didactic and his respect for the subjects of his films, coupled with his generosity of spirit, guarantee that what we see on screen is touchingly candid. In 2015 the Sundance Film Festival awarded Zhou’s The Chinese Mayor the special jury prize for Unparalleled Access. The aptly titled award describes a quality shared by all of Zhou’s works, which examine the impact of massive social and economic changes in China. His first film to achieve international acclaim was Senior Year, an award-winning portrayal of a class of high school students from rural backgrounds struggling to prepare for the highly competitive national university entrance exam. In the five films that have followed, Zhou has documented the lives of drug addicts, migrant laborers, emergency room workers and patients, politicians, cotton farmers, and cops. Each of these films exposes some element of China’s most pressing social issues.

BAMPFA is thrilled that Zhou Hao will make the journey to Berkeley to present his documentaries in person and to discuss his work with Rachel Stern, assistant professor of law and political science at UC Berkeley.

Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator

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Support for Committed Cinema has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. This series is presented with the assistance of the National Committee on US-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program, which is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York. Thanks to Livia Bloom; Karin Chien; Shelly Kraicer; Zhoa Qi; Echo Xie, DC Chinese Film Festival; and James Mudge, Chinese Visual Festival.

Supporter

National Endowment for the Arts

Committed Cinema: Zhou Hao

September 30-October 2, 2016

Past Films

The Chinese Mayor

Cotton