168 minutes / Color
English; Mandarin / English subtitles
Release: 2012
Copyright: 2010
For five grueling years, Li Ning documents his struggle to achieve success as an avant-garde artist while contending with the pressures of modern life in China. He is caught between two families: his wife, son and mother, whom he can barely support; and his enthusiastic but disorganized guerilla dance troupe. Li's chaotic life becomes inseparable from the act of taping it, as if his experiences can only make sense on screen.
Tape shatters documentary conventions, utilizing a variety of approaches, including guerilla documentary, experimental street video, even CGI. Tape captures a decade's worth of artistic aspirations and failures, while breaking new ground in individual expression in China.
"A riveting portrait of an artist's attempts at expression and conflicts with societal norms."—Museum of Modern Art
"Li succeeds in revealing his own soul"—Rotterdam International Film Festival
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The great filmmaker Jia Zhangke travels with acclaimed painter Liu Xiaodong to Thailand where they meet workers in the throes of social turmoil.
JIA Zhangke | 2012 | 70 minutes | Color | Mandarin | English subtitles
