10.7 (Sat) 13:00-14:30 A Disappearance Foretold, Love Existed

10.7 (Sat) 15:00-16:30 A Virus in the City

10.7 (Sat) 17:00-18:30 Detroit Wild City

10.7 (Sat) 19:30-21:00 Las Vegas Meditation

10.8 (Sun) 13:00-14:30 Paris-Berlin

10.8 (Sun) 15:00-16:30 On the Edge of the World

10.8 (Sun) 17:30-19:00 Swagger

A Disappearance Foretold

Director: Olivier Meys

Release year: 2008

Runtime: 72 min

Country: France

Language: Chinese

A 600-year-old neighborhood, Qianmen is located in the heart of Beijing, just south of Tiananmen Square. In the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, Beijing became an epicenter of the mass destruction and forced relocation of working-class dwellings that have swept urban China in recent years. Many ancient neighborhoods of the capital city were destroyed and “renovated,” while the 80,000 people living there faced drastic changes. The film draws a portrait of a Beijing neighborhood, and is a record of a bygone reality.

Love Existed

Director: Maurice Pialat

Release year: 1960

Runtime: 20 min

Country: France

Language: French

The story takes place in the Parisian suburbs of the 1950s. With Edith Piaf's songs, Argentinian accordions, and acoustic guitars playing in the background, the filmmaker Maurice Pialat makes detailed observations about the policies for both intensive urbanization and “anti-civilization,” and working conditions.

A Virus in the City

Director: Cedric Venail

Year: 2008

Runtime: 2008

Country: France

Language: French

French-Israeli artist Absalon (1964-1993) died in the early 1990s before realizing his radical ‘life project”——his six Cellules (cells). To be located in the cities of Paris, Zurich, New York, Tel Aviv, Frankfurt/Main, and Tokyo, these minimal homes incorporated a monastic spirit while referencing Le Corbusier’s idea of a “machine for living.” Cedric Venail’s first film, A Virus in the City, shows Absalon explaining his project during a slideshow in 1993, articulates the details of the houses, and uses speculative sequences to explore their enigmatic meaning in their projected locations. The result is a beautifully photographed and inventive approach towards an unfinished art project.

Detroit Wild City

Director: Florent Tillon

Year: 2010

Runtime: 80 min

Country: France

Language: French

Synoposis: The documentary explores the rise and fall of Detroit. While the automobile industry once jumpstarted its rise and made it the most industrialized city in the United States, the city has laid deserted for decades due to changes in American society, and the urban landscape has also changed with it. When young people move back to the ruins of the former Detroit, can they form a new wave of pioneers? Can they pave a path for America to “rediscover” itself?

Las Vegas Mediation

Director: Florent Tillon

Year: 2014

Runtime: 85 min

Country: France

Language: French

Synoposis: Jarret Keene and David Parker are two post-apocalyptic punk band singers and authors. Jarret is a 40 year old father of two young kids, who hesitates between his family life and a destructive artistic career. David, 27 years, is a “crisis child” from Vegas, who grew up in the barren suburbs, and doesn’t want kids because of the future is doomed. In a city where our lives are destined to dissipate, what meaning is there left? How are we supposed to face the future?

Paris-Berlin

Director: Pierre Desfonds

Year: 1994

Runtime: 75 min

Country: France

Language: French

Synoposis: Between the Angel of Victory in Berlin and the Genie de la Bastille in Paris, the director Pierre Desfonds embarks on a succession of round trips to trace the history of the two metropolises from the end of the Second World War to the early 1990s, focusing on the evolving policies on large estates and social housing.

On the Edge of the World

Director: Claus Drexel

Year: 2013

Runtime: 98 min

Country: France

Language: French

Synoposis: Paris, at night. This is where Jeni, Wenceslas, Christine, Pascal and the others live. Homeless, they haunt the streets, bridges, and metro corridors——on the edge of a world where society no longer offers protection. Facing the camera, they begin to talk.

Swagger

Director: Olivier Babinet

Year: 2016

Runtime: 84 min

Country: France

Language: French

Synopsis: Swagger gives audiences insight into the astonishing minds of eleven teenagers growing up in one of the most underprivileged neighborhoods in France. Through the eyes of these teenagers, the film reveals not only their harsh living conditions, but also their dreams and hopes.

Alliance Française

French Institute of China

French Embassy