The Yunnan New Film Project (云南影响)is a series of ten films shot in Yunnan by young female directors. In this video clip, Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei.org interviews project organizer Lola about the background of the Yunnan New Film Project. Goldkorn also interviews YNFP participant Wang Fen, director of the film The Case (箱子), regarding the state of Chinese film today.

Related Article:
Interview: Huang Ruxiang, Yunnan and Utopia

Tags: arts and entertainment, film, Jeremy Goldkorn, Lola, The Case, Wang Fen, Yunnan New Film Project

Saturday night the winning films from BigScreen 2007 were announced by a jury composed of Marco Ceresa of the Venice Film Festival, screenwriter Wang Yao and Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of the highly influential Danwei.org.

Winners included Hong Kong director Yan Yan Mak's The Scarlet Robe for best long film, Vecchio e la Fontana by Tony Palazzo of Italy for best short film, Living in a Perfect World by Italians Diego D'Innocenzo and Marco Leopardi for best documentary and Almost Like One of the Family by Astrid Goransson of Sweden for best animation.

Four films by French director Jean-Gabriel Périot - Even if she had been a criminal, Dies Irae, Under Twilight and Nijuman No Borei were collectively honored as the best entries in the videoart and experimental films category. The jurors said they based their selections upon the theme of modernity vs tradition, which was a common thread in all the winning films.

GoKunming congratulates Yan Yan Mak (麦婉欣) - who was in attendance at the festival - and all other winning filmmakers. We also thank our expert jury, event co-organizers CinaOggi.it, musical guests Tujiko Noriko, Rap Republic and Yuansheng Studio and of course everyone who stopped by for the 94 films and three concerts we took in over the past five days.

Tags: arts and entertainment, BigScreen Festival, Diego D'Innocenzo, Jean-Gabriel Périot, Jeremy Goldkorn, Marco Ceresa, Marco Leopardi, Rap Republic, Tony Palazzo, Tujiko Noriko, Wang Yao, Yan Yan Mak, Yuansheng Studio

Kunming's first international film festival - BigScreen International Film Festival 2007 - begins tomorrow at 3 pm at Yuansheng Studio and will span five days, 94 films and more than 20 countries before finishing up on Saturday night with a special live performance by Japanese avant-pop singer Tujiko Noriko.

This fifth installment of the BigScreen film festival series will highlight films from around the globe including feature-length films, short films, documentaries and video installations. BigScreen Festival is organized by CinaOggi and GoKunming and is hosted by the Yunnan Experimental Film Base. The festival has the full support of the Kunming People's Radio Station, Dushi Shibao newspaper and other relevant government organizations.

Special guests include jurors Marco Ceresa (organizer, Venice Film Festival), Wang Yao (screenwriter, Baby in Love, Returning Home, Gourmet of Poison) and Chinese media expert Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of the highly influential China media and advertising website Danwei.org. This panel of experts will award prizes to the top films featured at BigScreen 2007 during the closing ceremony on Saturday.

Hong Kong director Yan Yan Mak (Butterfly, Big Brother) will also be a special guest of the festival and will introduce her newest film, The Scarlet Robe on Friday.

Special musical guests include the Bai, Yi and Wa minority performers of Yuansheng Studio (Wednesday,), local bilingual hiphop act Rap Republic (Thursday) and songstress Tujiko Noriko (Saturday).

Admission to BigScreen 2007 is FREE. Yuansheng Studio is located within The Loft (创库), located at 101 Xiba Lu (西坝路１０１号).

Check GoKunming every day this week for a schedule of that day's BigScreen events

Tags: arts and entertainment, BigScreen Festival, Jeremy Goldkorn, live music, Marco Ceresa, Rap Republic, Tujiko Noriko, Wang Yao, Yuansheng Studio

Danwei.org, the long-running media commentary website run by Jeremy Goldkorn and team, has awarded GoKunming a Model Worker award, in the city and province blogs category.

According to Danwei's announcement yesterday, "the 2007 list of Danwei Model Workers [...] includes anything that may be called new media" and the judges are endearingly honest in saying up-front that there "is no democracy of any kind involved".

Well, we're grateful all the same. Thanks guys!

Tags: Danwei.org, Jeremy Goldkorn, Model Worker award