Sunday, March 29, 6:00 p.m. | Less known today after his disappearance into the wilds of local television and independent documentary cinema, director Allen Fong was considered one of the leading lights of the Hong Kong New Wave throughout the 1980s. While his better-remembered, more commercially oriented peers pushed the visual language of genre cinema to its outer limits, Fong's films took a more naturalized approach, focusing on working-class characters and often pulling their narratives from their cast and crew's real, lived experiences. AH YING, his international breakthrough, was inspired by the life of fish vendor-turned-actress Hui Sui-ying who stars as the titular main character. With its cast of nonprofessionals pulled from Hui's real-life family and friends, AH YING is an especially committed exercise in verisimilitude, tracing the arc of Hui's relationship with her artistic mentor and the beginnings of her stage and screen careers. (Chicago Film Society.)
Preceded by: THEORY OF ACHIEVEMENT (1991, dir. Hal Hartley, USA, 18 mins / 16mm). 16mm prints from the Chicago Film Society collection
WHAT IS CFS?
Founded by projectionists in 2011, the Chicago Film Society promotes the exhibition and preservation of film in context. CFS screenings provide access to the restoration efforts of archives, studios, and private collectors, the work of artists exploring the film medium today, and the experience of seeing film projected live in a theater, with an audience. As physical artifacts, the film prints we show hold the stories told by films—but also the stories of the industries that produced them, the labs that printed them, the places where they were exhibited, and the people who watched them. Through screenings, writing, film preservation projects, and workshops, CFS works to make all of this context visible and accessible to the public. Learn more about Chicago Film Society at chicagofilmsociety.org.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu