Country: USA
Year: 2016
Duration: 26'
The love and loss between Chinese revolutionary poet Qiu Jin (1875-1907) and calligrapher Wu Zhiying (1868-1934). Poet, feminist, and revolutionary, Qiu Jin was executed in 1907 due to her involvement in an attempt to overthrow the imperial Chinese government and has been alternately heralded as a nationalist martyr, communist hero, and feminist icon. The title refers to a traditional form of couplet poetry, in which language is bound by tonal structure; it also refers to a dueling category in wushu, Chinese martial arts. [mp]
Biography
film director
Wu Tsang
Wu Tsang (Worcester, MA, USA, 1982) lives and works in Los Angeles. Her films, installations, performances, and sculptures move fluidly between documentary, activism, and fiction. Her projects have been presented at museums and film festivals internationally, including MoMA (New York), Tate Modern (London), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Berlinale Film Festival (Berlin), SANFIC (Santiago), Hot Docs Festival (Toronto), and South by Southwest Film Festival (Austin). Her first feature film Wildness (2012) premiered at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight, and her work was also featured in the 2012 Whitney Biennial and in “The Ungovernables” New Museum Triennial in New York.
FILMOGRAFIA
Shape of a Right Statement (cm, 2008), Damelo Todo (Gimme Everything, cm, 2011), Wildness (2012), For How We Perceived a Life (Take 3) (2012), Mishima in Mexico (coregia/codirector Alexandro Segade, 2012), Tied and True (coregia/codirector Nana Oforiatta-Ayim, 2012), You’re Dead to Me (2013), A Day in the Life of Bliss (2014), Miss Communication and Mr: Re (coregia/codirector Fred Moten, 2014), The Looks (2015), Girl Talk (coregia/codirector Fred Moten, 2015), Duilian (cm, 2016).
Declaration
film director
“The boat is like a floating theater that contains a constructed reality encompassing different geographies and time periods. In the background you see contemporary Hong Kong, which doesn’t make sense. It’s definitely not 1907, you know? But I think it looks beautiful. […] Qiu Jin and Wu Zhiying were women who had a very intimate relationship that could have a queer interpretation. I’m also not trying to prove that they were lesbians, but I am interested in that angle.”
Cast
& Credits
regia/director
Wu Tsang
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Qiu Jin (il bambino/boychild), Wu Tsang (Wu Zhiying)
produzione/production
Spring Workshop
coproduzione/coproduction
Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, ArtHub Asia, Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
contatti/contacts
Isabella Bortolozzi Gallerie
Andrew Cannon
andrew@bortolozzi.com
www.bortolozzi.com
Wu Tsang
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Qiu Jin (il bambino/boychild), Wu Tsang (Wu Zhiying)
produzione/production
Spring Workshop
coproduzione/coproduction
Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, ArtHub Asia, Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
contatti/contacts
Isabella Bortolozzi Gallerie
Andrew Cannon
andrew@bortolozzi.com
www.bortolozzi.com
