An Evans Chan online retrospective will present seven films by this New York-based maverick filmmaker from Hong Kong:
https://venue.cityline.com/utsvInternet/internet/eventDetail?lang=en&event=38799
They include To_Liv(e) (1991), Crossings (1994), Journey to Beijing (1998), The Map of Sex and Love (2001), Sorceress of the New Piano (2004), Datong: The Great Society (2011), and Chinatopia (2011). Unique stories about history, culture, as well as artistic and political figures in Hong Kong and the global Chinese diaspora will be revealed in these creative, emotional, and rarely seen documentaries and fiction films.
To Liv(e) evokes the angst and eros in post-Tiananmen Hong Kong of 1989, whereas Crossings unveils the streak of anti-Asian violence in America through the exploration of a real life interracial murder in the New York subway in the 1990’s.
Anthony Wong Yiu-ming in To Liv(e)
Anita Yuen Wing-yee in Crossings.
A Berlin and London filmfest selection, Journey to Beijing is the only independently produced documentary about the 1997 Sino-British handover of Hong Kong.
Journey to Beijing chronicles a Hong Kong to Beijing philanthropic walkathon during the countdown to the 1997 Sino-British handover of Hong Kong.
A film about secrets, The Map of Sex and Love, tries to fathom a mysterious chapter of the Holocaust’s fallout in Asia.
Victor Ma Choi-wo in Map of Sex and Love, a film about romance, queer and straight.
Sorceress of the New Piano is an eye/ear-opening exposition of groundbreaking new music via a portrayal of Brooklyn-based Margaret Leng Tan, “diva of avant-garde pianism” (New Yorker).
Margaret Leng Tan, “diva of avant-garde pianism” (New Yorker)
The two complimentary docu-dramas, Datong: The Great Society, and Chinatopia, trace the remarkable lives of Kang Youwei, imperial China’s pioneering constitutional reformer and dissident politician, and his suffragist daughter Kang Tongbi, who entered Barnard College in 1907. The late Liu Kaichi, Hong Kong’s beloved character actor, essayed one of his most impressive roles as Kang Youwei.
Liu Kai-chi in Datong: The Great Society
Lindzay Chan in Chinatopia
Director Profile
Evans Chan.
Evans Chan (www.evanschan.com) is a Hong Kong and New York-based critic, playwright, and independent filmmakers. Chan’s award-winning films have been presented by Berlin, Rotterdam, London, Moscow, San Francisco, Taiwan Golden Horse and many other film festivals. His docu-drama about Kang Youwei, Datong: The Great Society, received the 2011 Chinese-language Movie of the Year Award presented by China’s maverick Southern Metropolitan Daily. Time Out has named Chan’s directorial debut, To Liv(e), one of the 100 Greatest Hong Kong Films.
“Chan has made a singular contribution to Hong Kong cinema and at the same time a major contribution to the whole spectrum of contemporary film-making. His work achieves a seamless blend of fact and fiction to produce an innovative kind of essayistic cinema, driven equally by issues and by his own experiences and perceptions” (Tony Raynes, film-maker, critic and festival programmer)
“With his poetic sensibility, astute observations, original cinematic endeavors and rare historical perspicaciousness, Evans Chan is the true intellectual in Chinese cinema.” (Peggy Chiao, producer and film scholar)
“One of the most singularly innovative and diverse figures in the Chinese cultural world.” (Michael Berry, Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers)