Among the numerous cultural initiatives organized by the Confucius Institute in the last 10 years, the cooperation with the Cineteca of Bologna stands out. With Cineteca projections, retrospectives and reviews on modern and contemporary Chinese cinema have been organized. The collaboration brought the work of important Chinese filmmakers of the twentieth century to Bologna and Italy for the first time. In particular: in 2010, in cooperation with the China Film Archive in Beijing, a retrospective of the director Fei Mu (1906-1951) was organized in which the film Confucius restored by the Hong Kong Film Archive was showed; in 2014, in collaboration with the Shanghai Film Museum, the film festival “Tribute to Xie Jin - a master of Chinese cinema” was organized; in 2018, with the participation of the Center de documentation et de récherche sur le cinéma chinois de Paris, the Cineteca Film Festival “Il cinema Ritrovato”, hosted a section entitled “The rebirth of Chinese cinema (1941-1951)”.
With pleasure we report the 34th edition or ... Il Cinema Ritrovato year zero, which will be held in Bologna from 25 to 31 August 2020.
In particular, the Confucius Institute points out some unmissable events dedicated to Chinese cinema. Among the others, the Cinemalibero section presents an important number of films restored in tortuous ways, after long searches, overcoming the enigmas of censorship and the scarcity of available elements: among these, Xiao Wu (China, 1997), also known as The pickpocket, by director Jia Zhang-ke. It is undoubtedly one of the most evocative and accomplished works that saw the light in China in the nineties: made on a low budget and animated by a cast composed entirely of non-professional actors, Xiao Wu conveys a significant claim to independent Chinese cinema. it's underground. For Jia Zhang-ke this stage constitutes a triumphal debut in the directorial career, where the Jia finds himself capable of moving away from the dimension of social observation, in favor of the psychological one, therefore capable of grasping the spiritual truths under the surfaces of everyday life. We continue with the Documents and Documentaries section which welcomes a singular portrait of the director of The Pickpocket signed by Walter Salles and which is called Jia Zhang-ke. A guy from Fenyang (Brazil, 2005). Salles interviewed Jia in 2007 at the Mostra de São Paulo, already with the idea of making a book and a documentary about the director. In A guy from Fenyang, Salles reflects deeply on the work of Jia Zhang-ke, underlining his extraordinary ability to give us back the complexity of the culture he reveals, as well as the importance of the cinema tool to fix in memory what otherwise would risk being erased: the protagonists are, not surprisingly, ordinary people, that is, 'not holders of power'. And in this complex painting, the theme of precariousness with the man who faces something that seems bigger than him is a rather recurring leitmotif, perhaps the trait that more than any other unites Xiao Wu with all the other characters of Jia Zhang-ke .
As regards of access to the Festival, we point out that this year, in light of the current anti-contagion rules, access to the screenings will be allowed only to holders of the accreditation (with the exception of the screenings in Piazza Maggiore which remain free and open to all). Furthermore, to ensure compliance with anti-contagion rules, reservations will be required for the individual screenings.
For more info on accesses and accreditations, you can contact us by email or consult our dedicated page.
