10/23–10/27 I Love Beijing: The Films of Ning Ying

Stills: For Fun, October 23, I Love Beijing, October 25 and Perpetual Motion, October 26

The films of Ning Ying run the gamut from Sex and the City style urban comedies to heartfelt documentaries, all examining China’s changing society and attitudes. She’s been called China’s most important director woman director (how ’bout just Director. Period?), earned comparisons to Martin Scorsese, and is currently an artist in residence over at Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive.
In conjunction with her residency PFA is presenting 4 nights of Ying’s films, including both her masterful Beijing Trilogy series and Perpetual Motion, her newest film. Ying will be in attendance for each screening and the series caps off Monday, Oct. 27 with a master film making class.-kwan

THURSDAY OCTOBER 23
7:30 For Fun
Ning Ying (China/Hong Kong, 1992, 98 mins)
In the Beijing Trilogy’s first installment, a meddlesome retiree finds an outlet in an amateur Peking Opera troupe. “Beautifully observed and splendidly acted.”-Tony Rayns

FRIDAY OCTOBER 24
8:30 On the Beat
Ning Ying (China, 1995, 96 mins)
The centerpiece of the Beijing Trilogy is a sharply observed portrait of the city’s police and a sly, deadpan study of bureaucratic futility.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 25
6:30 I Love Beijing
Ning Ying (China, 2001, 80 mins)
The Beijing Trilogy accelerates to its conclusion: a cab driver navigates the new social terrain of a city under constant construction.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 26
1:30 Railroad of Hope
Ning Ying (China, 2001, 53 mins)
Ning’s sensitive, eye-opening documentary on internal migration. With shorts In Our Own Words (Ning Ying, China, 2001, 30 mins) and Looking for a Job in the City (Ning Ying, China, 2003, 15 mins).

4:00 Perpetual Motion
Ning Ying (China, 2005, 90 mins)
Sex and the City, Beijing-style: Ning’s latest feature views China’s recent transformations through the eyes of four successful, sexual, trash-talking women.

MONDAY OCTOBER 27
4:00 Master Class with Ning Ying
Admission Free!
Join Ning Ying for a lively discussion of her work and the filmmaking process. This event is designed for students, but open to the general public.

I Love Beijing: The Films of Ning Ying
Pacific Film Archive Theater
2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
510.642.5249
http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries