Filmmaking is akin to architecture when a cinematic space is designed and built from imagination. With construction tools like a video camera, filmmakers can present different perceptions to our lived world and alter its established compositions. Through increasingly democratic forms of filmmaking, cinema can offer an avenue to facilitate public participation in the re-making of our set environment. As a response to the festival’s theme of Building Agency, the Asian Film Archive (AFA) will be presenting a series of short films from Singapore and the feature film Meishi Street (2006) from China as examples of such cinematic interventions. From solid 3D structures to fluid 3D illusions, the film programme will seek to flatten the hierarchical impressions of our built structures and propose an expansion of possibilities.

Building Agency on Screen: Meishi Street (2006)
Sat 14 Oct, 7:30pm-9:30pm at NTU CCA

MEISHI STREET shows ordinary citizens taking a stand against the planned destruction of their homes for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In order to widen traffic routes for the Olympic Games, the Beijing Municipal Government orders the demolition of entire neighborhoods. Several evictees of Meishi Street, located next to Tiananmen Square, fight through endless red tape and the indifference of fellow citizens for the right to keep their homes. Given video cameras by the filmmakers, they shoot exclusive footage of the eviction process, adding vivid intimacy to their story. Acclaimed at over two dozen museums and galleries around the world, MEISHI STREET, by renowned visual artist Ou Ning, works as both art and activism, calling worldwide attention to lives being demolished in the name of progress.
Courtesy of Icarus Films.
Director: Ou Ning
Duration: 85 mins
Rating: NC16 (Some Mature Content)

Recommended Reading: http://sensesofcinema.com/2012/miff2012/alternative-archives-and-individual-subjectivities-ou-nings-meishi-street/