Rhythms from Life: Jia Zhangke

February 6–17, 2019

We survey the work of the internationally celebrated director whose films depict China’s relentless socioeconomic transformation and the people it leaves behind.

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  • Ash Is Purest White

  • Unknown Pleasures

  • A Touch of Sin

  • Platform

  • 24 City

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • 24 City

    Jia Zhangke
    China, 2008
    Wednesday, February 6 7 PM

    A Sichuan industrial complex is razed to make way for upscale condos. “Blending fiction with documentary, [Jia] brings huge stretches of long-repressed history to life on an intimate scale” (New Yorker).

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  • Xiao Wu

    Jia Zhangke
    China, Hong Kong, 1997

    Imported 35mm Print

    Thursday, February 7 2:30 PM

    A small-time, undermotivated pickpocket finds himself on the wrong end of China’s economic leap forward. Jia’s debut feature was a milestone in contemporary Chinese cinema.

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  • Platform

    Jia Zhangke
    Hong Kong/China, 2000

    Imported 35mm Print

    Thursday, February 7 7 PM

    A performance troupe struggles to keep up during China’s 1980s move from communism to capitalism, and from peasant folk songs to electric breakdancing. “Might be the greatest film to come out of mainland China” (Jonathan Rosenbaum).

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  • Unknown Pleasures

    Jia Zhangke
    China/Japan, 2002

    Imported 35mm Print

    Friday, February 8 2:30 PM
    CANCELED: Jia Zhangke in Person

    Teenage life in a Chinese backwater forms “as true a picture of contemporary existence as we could hope for right now” (Film Comment).

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  • Ash Is Purest White

    Jia Zhangke
    China/France/Japan, 2018

    East Bay Premiere

    Sunday, February 10 6:30 PM
    Jia Zhangke and Michael Berry in Conversation

    A gangster’s wife stands on her own in Jia’s expansive narrative of empowerment and survival, inspired by Hong Kong gangster films and set against the tumultuous changes in contemporary China. “Fierce, gripping, emotionally generous, and surprisingly funny” (Los Angeles Times).

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  • A Touch of Sin

    Jia Zhangke
    China, 2013
    Sunday, February 17 7 PM

    Jia takes on the collateral damage of China’s maniacal growth, explosively restaging four violent deeds to illustrate everyday citizens pushed to the edge—of the economy. Winner of the Best Screenplay prize at Cannes.

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