Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Lucky Cat Special - Radio Programme on the 2nd Chinese Visual Festival

Thursday 14th June 5.30pm on Resonance 104.4FM / www.resonancefm.com
I will be broadcasting a special edition of Lucky Cat previewing the Chinese Visual Festival. This is the second festival of Chinese visual culture brought to London by China Culture Connect. I will be joined live in the Resonance FM studio by the Festival's Marketing Manager James Mudge and the show will feature a live musical performance by Boulevard Productions (pianist Dr Zachary Dunbar and actor/singer Ming Qiang (Jeremy) Xie and friends). Boulevard Productions will be performing a Mandarin version of the classic musical Sweet Charity at the Festival's Music Night on 28th June.

The Festival opens on June 22nd, the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival, at the Free Word Centre in central London and will feature the UK premiere of the film Dragon Boat by acclaimed director Cao Dan. Through the ancient Chinese sport of dragon boat racing, the film tells the story of rapid economic development in modern China and the resulting disappearance of rural traditions. Cao Dan will be at the Gala for an audience Q&A session.

The Festival runs from 22nd June to 6th July 2012 across four central London venues and is themed Run, China, Run. The theme ties in with the Olympics; hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics has affected Chinese society and the festival looks at the ‘aftershock’ of the 2008 Beijing Olympics through a variety of Chinese films and art. The running also refers to China's race for modernisation.


The film section will feature 17 independent documentary films from China. As well as Cao Dan for Dragon Boat, other directors will be present for audience Q&A sessions, including Wang Bang for University City Savages on 27th June and Guo Xiaolou for Once Upon a Time Proletarian on 6th July.

The Chinese Visual Festival will present its first Directorial Retrospective on 30th June, Zhou Hao – The Constant Documentarian, with his two most influential films, Senior Year and Using being shown at the Birkbeck College Cinema.

The Festival also includes an art exhibition by Wu Xiaohai and a music concert by renowned Pipa musician Wang Ting.
The full programme and tickets for all events are available on the Chinese Visual Festival website: www.chinesevisualfestival.org

Do tune in for a preview of the Festival on Thursday 14th June at 5.30pm on Resonance 104.4 FM with me Zoë Baxter.
The radio show will also be repeated on Resonance the day the Festival begins (7pm Friday 22nd June).

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