A field study of fourteen paintings from China’s Dafen village, as the government rebrands the copy-painting district as a hub for original art.
Dongnan Chen
Dongnan Chen is based in Shenzhen, China. She is a graduate of New York University and a fellow of Sundance’s Story and Edit Lab. Her filmography includes 14 Paintings (2023) (Sundance, IDFA), Singing in the Wilderness (2021) (IFFR, ND/NF), The Trail From Xinjiang (2013), and Sound of Vision (2012) (Emmy Nomination).
Cinema as Memorial
Reminiscence? What is reminiscence? What is the difference between them and memories? What can constitute a reminiscence and memory? How does reminiscence work? Whose reminiscence? What reminiscence? What memory? Whose memory? When should we reminisce and when should we remember? How do we remember and how do we reminisce?
The films in this year’s Spektrum explore these questions through a variety of approaches, both experimental and traditional in documentary film production.
Instead of contestation, this year’s Spektrum tries to present a range of diverse scores on memory and how we remember. From the very personal to/or at the same time the collective, as well as from the hegemonic to the alternative. Memories and ways of remembering coexist; they can be equally important for us to know or learn. It’s not about finding answers in an instant, but rather as a reminder that we can retain as a critical aid to navigate life now and then.
–Wimo Ambala Bayang
Programmer
Dafen Urban Village in Shenzhen, China is known as an art village and the epicenter of painting reproduction in China. Dafen’s identity as an art village has allowed it to dominate the painting industry since the mid-2000s (Arnold, 2017). However, the transition of political conditions and government policies intervened in the labeling of Dafen Village,…
