Independent China 2

HAFF has special ties with China. During HAFF 2010, Chinese Sun Xun was the festival’s special guest as artist in residence. His impressive films and the exhibitions at CBKU and the Central Museum attracted a great deal of attention. Since then, he has not sat idle and made no fewer than two new films and put together scores of exhibitions home and abroad. After its world première at the Berlin Film Festival, his latest film Some Actions Which Haven't Been Defined Yet in the Revolution participates in the HAFF competition for shorts, and our Independent China programme includes his other recent film, Beyond-ism.
His passionate activity seems exemplary of the tempestuous development China is going through, in the field of art in general and animation in particular. The Independent China programme section shows work by the new generation of single-minded Chinese filmmakers and fine artists, who have been working very hard over the last two decades. They are almost exclusively young filmmakers, born after the Cultural Revolution and some even after the demonstrations on Tiananmen Square. Still, many of them turn out to be notably inspired in their consideration of the nation’s cultural history. Another leitmotif in the programme is the freedom of approach, effortlessly varying between different techniques and the eager inquiry into materials.
The programme was compiled in association with A4, Contemporary Arts Center (Chengdu, China). Various filmmakers will attend the screenings, and it is possible to chat with them afterwards. Apart from the film screenings, this programme section presents installations in the Louis Hartlooper Complex and one on top of the Neude Flat on Vinkenburgstraat: Last Experimental Flying Object by Ye Linghan.
One of the sections was compiled by Haiyang Wang. He won the 2010 Dioraphte Non-Narrative Grand Prix for Freud, Fish and Butterfly and was given carte blanche for this edition to put together a programme of his personal favourites. What drives him and what influenced him as a filmmaker? He selected work by painters, sculptors and installation makers. By the way, the festival also displays art work by Haiyang Wang himself, from Double Fikret, his latest film that has its world première at HAFF in the shorts competition, and there is a meet & greet with the artist.

Showing in this program

Enteroceptive Hallucination

Ming Zhou
China, 2009
20 min.

Last Experimental Flying Object

Linghan Ye
China, 2008
7 min.

Ye Linghan: This is a test flight of a whale airship and some unknown objects. ‘Disassembly’ factory is one place that is on the flight route. I take 7:23 minutes from the long test flight. I try to describe the mythical world which people cannot see.