Around China with a Movie Camera

Jul 18, 2016

1h 8m

★ 4.2

Take a trip back to China in the first half of the twentieth Century with this presentation of extraordinary, rare and beautiful travelogues, newsreels and home movies.

Overview

A new film compiled from the BFI National Archive's unparalleled holdings of early films of China, features films from 1900-48 filmed across China. The cinematic journey of Around China with a Movie Camera contains many films which may never have been seen in China, or at the very least not for over 70 years. These travelogues, newsreels and home movies were made by a diverse group of British and French filmmakers, some professionals, but mainly enthusiastic amateurs, including intrepid tourists, colonial-era expatriates and Christian missionaries.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

BFI

Around China with a Movie Camera Trailers

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Cast

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Highlights the rebellious young generation of artists in China fighting for political emancipation, artistic freedom and creating a cultural golden age during the 1980s - a significant decade of transformational change. Interweaving six main characters' memories with the director's personal narration, the film embarks on an emotional journey and tells a story of being passionate and idealistic before dreams are dashed to pieces.

7.5

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

Sep 23, 1927

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

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0.0

The Best of Laurel and Hardy

Dec 14, 1968

Compilation of the mismatched but immortal pair's various films and shorts.

8.0

Tiananmen: The People Versus the Party

Jun 2, 2019

The true story of the seven weeks that changed China forever. On June 4, 1989, pro-democracy demonstrations were violently and bloodily repressed. Thousands of people died, but the basis for China's future was definitely planted.

7.1

Nanook of the North

Jun 11, 1922

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

6.0

Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!

Jan 1, 1982

A collection of bloopers and outtakes from an enormous selection of Hollywood classic productions spanning from the 1930s through the 1980s.

6.9

Plastic China

Jan 20, 2017

This film tells a story about an unschooled 11-year-old girl Yi-Jie, she's a truly global child who learns the world through the United Nations of Wastes while working with her YI minority parents in this recycle workshop thousand miles away from their mountain village home town

0.0

The Comic Book Greats: Compendium

Dec 31, 1992

Compendium of Greatest Moments with artists from Comic Book Greats Series

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7.0

The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk

Sep 2, 2007

Film historians, and survivors from the nearly 30-year struggle to bring sound to motion pictures take the audience from the early failed attempts by scientists and inventors, to the triumph of the talkies.

4.9

Visions of Europe

May 1, 2004

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

4.6

Maineland

Mar 11, 2017

Chinese teenagers from the wealthy elite, with big American dreams, settle into a boarding school in small-town Maine. As their fuzzy visions of the American dream slowly gain more clarity, their relationship to home takes on a poignant new aspect.

5.3

Famous T & A

Jan 1, 1982

A collection of nude and/or topless scenes from various films featuring actresses who were either famous at the time or who became famous later on.

10.0

Trip to Asia: The Quest for Harmony

Feb 28, 2008

Journey with the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic and their conductor Sir Simon Rattle on a breakneck concert tour of six metropolises across Asia: Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo. Their artistic triumph onstage belies a dynamic and dramatic life backstage. The orchestra is a closed society that observes its own laws and traditions, and in the words of one of its musicians is, “an island, a democratic microcosm – almost without precedent in the music world - whose social structure and cohesion is not only founded on a common love for music but also informed by competition, compulsion and the pressure to perform to a high pitch of excellence... .” Never before has the Berlin Philharmonic allowed such intimate and exclusive access into its private world.

8.0

Flipside Video Fanzine Number Two

Aug 1, 1983

White Flag : Flipside, Not Alright, Communication Breakdown G.B.H. : Gimme Fire, Wild Thing, I Am The Hunted 7 Seconds : This Is My Life, out of Touch, Skins brains guts Tesco Vee : worshiping /s - 7 seconds with a cat and a guessing game with: SSD doing Shangri-las, White Flag doing Pink Floyd & GBH doing the Buzzcocks. Battalion of Saints : I Wanna Make You Scream Minor Threat : Stand Up And Be Counted, Stepping Stone Rodney Mullen skating Minor Threat: betray & Jeff Nelson Brian baker (skating) it Follows Big Boys : Brickwall Stretch Marks : Professional Punks Urinals/100 Flowers : California Falling, Surfing With The Shaw, With: Keith Morris and D Boon Black Flag : Scream in Mike Muir's garage Kraut : Kill For Cash Minutemen : Split Red, Life As A Rehearsal, Ack Ack Ack Ack Angst : This Guns For You, Neil Armstrong Dickies : If Stuart Could Talk, Manny, Moe, and Jack, You Drive Me Ape, Gigantor ENDCLIPS: The Avengers, The Eyes, 45 Grave, SIN 34

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6.0

North China Factory

Jan 1, 1980

This documentary from 1980 depicts a factory community in China where over 6000 workers process, spin and weave raw cotton into 90 million yards of high-quality cloth per year. Also seen are the workers' residential, social, recreational and educational facilities, all located on factory property. The film presents an engrossing study of a lifestyle that is very different from that of the Western world.

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6.0

i.Mirror by China Tracy

Jun 10, 2007

Cao Fei recorded her experiences within the online social platform Second Life. The result is a wistful, surreal vision of an alternative reality sprung from the pop culture fantasies and hyper-consumerism of contemporary urban China, while also trying to transcend its real-life limitations. It can be seen as an answer to the challenge posed by River Elegy: how to envision a new Chinese destiny founded on principles of individuality, creativity, discovery, and freedom. The film also reflects the contemporary condition of the virtual supplanting our experience of the real.

0.0

Redefining China's Family: Women

Jul 19, 2008

10 May 2007 - China's staggering economic growth has overshadowed a more subtle shift in Chinese society. In domestic life, many women are now ignore the advice of their mothers and grandmothers, turning instead to counselling hotlines and, increasingly, divorce.

7.9

Buster Keaton: The Genius Destroyed by Hollywood

Feb 7, 2016

In 1926, Buster Keaton was at the peak of his glory and wealth. By 1933, he had reached rock bottom. How, in the space of a few years, did this uncontested genius of silent films, go from the status of being a widely-worshipped star to an alcoholic and solitary fallen idol? With a spotlight on the 7 years during which his life changed, using extracts of Keaton’s films as magnifying mirrors, the documentary recounts the dramatic life of this creative genius and the Hollywood studios.

7.9

Beijing 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony

Aug 8, 2008

The 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest. It began at 8:00 p.m. China Standard Time (UTC+8) on August 8, 2008, as 8 is considered to be a lucky number in Chinese culture. Featuring more than 15,000 performers, the ceremony lasted over four hours and cost over $100 million USD to produce.

8.0

A Day on the Grand Canal with the Emperor of China or: Surface Is Illusion But So Is Depth

Mar 18, 1988

Director Philip Haas and artist David Hockney invite you to join them on a magical journey through China via a marvelous 72-foot long 17th-century Chinese scroll entitled The Kangxi Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour (1691-1698), scroll seven . As Hockney unrolls the beautiful and minutely detailed work of art, he traces the Emperor Kangxi’s second tour of his southern empire in 1689.

Around China with a Movie Camera

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Around China with a Movie Camera Trailers

Cast

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