Beijing Film Studio

August 3, 2021

For Fun

 

 

For Fun 《找乐》
Friday & Saturday August 6th & 7th, 2021 - 8:00 PM
 $16 General Admission / $12 VPES Members
//\\//\\//\\limited tickets remain//\\//\\//\\

For Fun 《找乐》explores the life of Old Han, a "recently retired concierge of an opera company and his battle against bureaucracy to establish an amateur opera troupe" with other men like himself. Directed by Ning Ying, the film is also an encapsulation of Beijing at a certain time and place, or as she describes: "rough, beautiful, exciting, and horrible, all at once."

The third iteration of Electric Shadows on Penglai Mountain, the film is presented in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles and will be screened outdoors with limited seating. Guests can visit Shengjing Panorama, a 360-degree painting of Shenyang, China circa 1910-1930 before and after the screening.

Doors will open at 8pm, and the movie will begin at 8:30. Advanced tickets required (no tickets sold at the door).

This event has been made possible through support from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the Velaslavasay Panorama Enthusiast Society.
  

 

 

//\\//\\//\\//\\//A Glimpse of the Beijing Film Studio//\\//\\//\\//\\//

 

 

 

 

(Beijing Film Studio, 2015, photo by Jude)

 

 

 

 

For Fun 《找乐》was produced by Beijing Film Studio, which came about during the third wave of cinema in China (c. 1949-1965), when the Central Film Bureau consolidated multiple existing film studios throughout the country down to only three. At the time, Hollywood films were prohibited, but by the sixth-generation of cinema in China (1994-present), multinational corporations and private studios were dominant. A certain amount of creative freedom led independent and underground filmmakers, such as Ning Ying and Jia Zhangke, to create movies about people, communities and landscapes in the liminal spaces of marginalization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Beijing Film Studio, 2009, Gilles Sabrié)

 

 

 

 

Around 2012, the Beijing Film Studio was marked for demolition, but was found partially standing in 2019 as an abandoned, manufactured landscape representing a changed industry. The structures are replicas of formerly demolished architecture from previous eras like the Qing dynasty, stuck in a cycle of demolition and reproduction of history. Universal Studios Beijing is set to open this year in 2021, so while the Beijing Film Studio will no longer stand as a testament to over 50 years of filmmaking in China, both Beijing and LA tourists can visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a replica of a fictional world based on a no longer extant film set.

 

 

 

 

 

(Shenyang - Guandong Movie & TV Town, 2015, Sara Velas)

 

 

 

Artists of Shengjing Panorama used the Guandong Movie & TV Town, a studio backlot on the outskirts of Shenyang, as one source of inspiration while sketching the painting. Velaslavasay Panorama artists made documentation at the Guandong Movie and TV Town back in 2013 and 2015, some of which can be felt in the soundscape for Shengjing Panorama. In 2019 (the year of the Kincade and Saddleridge fires in Southern California, among others) the Qipanshan forest area, home of the movie park, suffered a catastrophic fire destroying much of the studio, but elements of the location remain and can still be visited by tourists.

 

 

(Beijing Film Studio, 2009, Gilles Sabrié)

 

 

 

Other towns and TV parks in China are purpose built for filmmaking, such as Hengdian World Studios, the largest movie theme parks in China, and Shanghai Film Park. Although not all of the city was purpose built for cinema, Los Angeles has a long history of serving as a backdrop of filming, both in the era of Shengjing Panorama (i.e. early 20th century) and today (see: Los Angeles Plays Itself, by Thom Anderson).  Keen observers might have glimpsed the Velaslavasay's Union Theatre home in Ryan Murphy’s series Hollywood (2020). Perhaps one day there will be a structure modeled after the Union Theatre sitting vacant in a backlot somewhere, playing the role of an old LA cinema.

 

 

 

 

(Union Theatre, Velaslavasay Panorama, 2021, Ruby Carlson & Sara Velas)