Emergent Visions: New Independent Documentaries
Emergent Visions presents screenings of exceptional independent documentary films produced in China and Taiwan, followed by scholarly discussions led by faculty and students. The films selected range from the just released to classics and evince distinct, compelling cinematic visions; yet they all share a commitment to serving as witness to the rapid changes taking place in China today.


Thursday, January 28, 2010            7:00 pm
Dancing with Oneself  和自己跳舞 2001      
Directed by Li Hong

Dancing with Oneself portrays a group of middle-aged men and women who meet at a park in Beijing every morning for ballroom dancing. Coming mostly from the lower social strata, fatigued by problems of the everyday, these people come to dance to experience an intimate and sentimental liaison with others. Compared to most social documentaries made in contemporary China, this film is particularly light, humorous, and, to some extent, frivolous.  Starting with the dancers using the camera screen as a mirror to preen themselves, ending with a man enacting to the camera an incredible performance of the plasticity of the body, the film investigates the seemingly superfluous and inconsequential things in life: day-dreams, half-romances, and bodies seeking graceful flirtations. Li Hong, whose first documentary film Returning to the Phoenix Bridge (1997) won the Ogawa Shinsuke Prize for its intimate portrayal of women migrant workers living in Beijing, in this second film continues to investigate the structures of sentimental subjectivities. 60 minutes


Location: CGIS South, Belfer Case Study Room S020
1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA
Contact: jieli@fas.harvard.edu

 

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