2016 Chinese Visual Festival (CVF), London Venues, May 11-20

The 6th Chinese Visual Festival (CVF) will be held in London from May 11th – 20th at King’s College London, BFI Southbank and the Bertha DocHouse screen at Curzon Bloomsbury. This year’s festival builds on the success of previous editions, again bringing the very best in the cinema and art of the Chinese speaking world to the UK.

CVF this year welcomes Cao Fei, one of the most significant and innovative young artists to emerge on the international scene from China. Cao Fei’s multimedia projects explore the lost dreams of the young Chinese generation and their strategies for escaping reality, mixing social commentary, popular aesthetics, and surrealism. Having exhibited and screened to great acclaim at the Tate Modern, the Guggenheim Museum and the Sydney, Moscow, Shanghai, Istanbul and Venice Biennales, Cao Fei will be presenting her latest work La Town and taking part in sessions at the BFI Southbank.

The festival has scored another major coup in bringing the remarkable independent filmmaker Yang Lina to London. A trained dancer and stage performer who starred in Jia Zhangke’s Platform, Yang Lina’s works have won a long list of international awards, earning her recognition as an important female voice in China’s male-dominated film industry. As well as screening Longing for the Rain, Home Video and The Love Life of Lao An and taking part in Q&As, Yang Lina will be embarking on a UK tour.

For the fourth year, CVF is proud to be working with the Cultural Division of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK on our popular Vision Taiwan strand. Vision Taiwan this year sees actor Huang Shang-ho coming to London to present the international award-winning Thanatos, Drunk, as well as his earlier work Tomorrow Comes Today. Aboriginal Taiwanese actress, singer and TV presenter Ado Kaliting Pacidal will attend, hosting a screening of her big screen debut, the moving Panay (Wawa no Cidal), and the strand also includes the UK premiere of Tom Lin’s much-praised Zinnia Flower.

Other guests this year include Jin Huaqing, presenting his latest work The Tibetan Girl with performer Gongqiu Zhuoma, as well as taking part in a Q&A session about his career; and a collection of young filmmakers from Hong Kong’s Fresh Wave, an important training ground for future directors, screening a selection of shorts from the 2015 competition. CVF this year will also be giving audiences the chance to catch a number of other impressive films, including Pema Tseden’s Tharlo and Li Luo’s award-winning Li Wen at East Lake, well as a carefully curated series of independent fiction and documentary films as part of its Contemporary Visions, Ethnic Perspectives and Cinema Comrade LGBTQ strands.

Festival Director James Mudge commented “It’s great to be back for our sixth year, and I really think 2016 is our strongest edition yet. As well as all the fantastic premieres and award-winning films we’re giving our audience the rare chance to catch on the big screen, I’m particularly pleased to see a female- focus in our two Chinese guests Cao Fei and Yang Lina. We’re very privileged to be again working with the Cultural Division of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK on Vision Taiwan, and it’s been great to see the series getting more and more popular each year – Thanatos, Drunk is a real personal favourite, and being able to bring Huang Shang-ho and Ado Kaliting Pacidal to London shows just how the festival has grown. With audiences becoming increasingly curious about the cultures and stories of the Chinese speaking world, our films this year deal with some challenging and intriguing topics, and we’re offering plenty that educates as well as entertains.”

2016 promises to be the biggest and most exciting year yet for Chinese Visual Festival, underlining the festival’s growing reputation as a key event in London’s cultural calendar.