Samantha Culp

HO TZU NYEN: RECENT VIDEOS – Special Screening in Shanghai

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It’s a pretty insane week here in Shanghai, as the “back-to-school” activities of the artworld commence, but truly looking forward to an event I’ve helped organize for this Sunday evening: two recent works by Singaporean filmmaker Ho Tzu-Nyen, to be screened in association with my friends at Future Perfect, and hosted by the just-barely-soft-opened Shanghai branch of Café Sambal. (Many thanks to Cho Chong Gee of Sambal for graciously supporting the event!)

If you find yourself in Shanghai this Sunday, please do attend – it should be a relaxing, atmospheric end to a crazy week.

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Short Stays Premiere

At long last, Short Stays had its premiere at The Opposite House on May 18. See some snapshots here…

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Photos from Short Stays: the Making Of

Click below to play a slideshow of the Short Stays film stills and making of…

Link to set on Flickr.

Short Stays – Premiere May 18

Short Stays, the film project I produced for The Opposite House hotel in Beijing, will have its long-awaited premiere on May 18. Read more on the Short Stays website.

SHORT STAYS / 暂停
3 Short Films by / 三个短片
Zhao Ye / Liu Jiayin / Peng Lei
赵晔、刘伽茵、彭磊

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Many Mansions

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(a film by Samantha Culp and Nicolas Sauret, 2010)

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Street Legal

Yesterday up at Gulou, I finally got around to buying the new albums by Hedgehog (just released) and Ourself Beside Me (came out in January)… Only to discover a few hours later via the salivating tweets of more media-savvy Beijingren that Google China had just launched its free mp3 service, which, of course, happens to feature both albums.

Oh well – still nice to support an actual music shop, and made an additional purchase of some Cui Zi’en (崔子恩) DVDs I haven’t seen around before. A few years ago at HKIFF, Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang described to me his first exposure to Cui’s films as something like this: “I put on the tape, and was watching it until I felt I had to turn it off, but then I couldn’t turn it off… it’s so bad that it’s fascinating, and then it becomes interesting.” Intense paraphrasing going on there, but it sticks in my mind as fairly apt. The weird, self-conscious crappiness in the aesthetic and tone of “Withered in the Blooming Season” is kind of amazing.

The Hedgehog and Ourself Beside Me albums are available for streaming and download below. (Legally! Though the concept of something that is both “digital” and “legal” in China is still confusing to me.) I’m still making my way through them…

OBMHedge

Ourself Beside Me “Ourself Beside Me”
(Loving the Rundgren/Barrett-by-way-of-Lisa-Frank cover art; also I’m amazed that they actually did use ‘Ourself Beside Me’ as the official name on it – they had barely decided it while my THEME article on them was going to press)

Hedgehog “Blue Day Dreaming”
(I wish time machines existed just so that Hedgehog could travel back to 1993 to appear on 120 Minutes, and we could now watch it on grainy Youtube VHS capture…)

From Vientiane to Beijing in Theme Magazine

As my last spurt of journalistic productivity before going on my present “sabbatical,” I have two pieces in the current issue of Theme Magazine (NYC). One is on Beijing band “Ourself Beside Me” (also known as “Ourselves Beside Me”; there is no definitive right spelling and I suspect the girls prefer it that way); the other on Thai television show “Dreamchaser.”

Profile: Ourself Beside Me, Theme Magazine, Issue 17, Nov/Dec/Jan 2008/2009 Eureka!

Theme: Dreamchaser, Theme Magazine, Issue 17, Nov/Dec/Jan 2008/2009 Eureka!

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Dreamchaser

(Theme Magazine, Dec/Jan 2008/2009)
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Sign

sign

(editor, video by artist Leung Chi Wo, 2008)

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From Gotham to Graham St

(TimeOut HK, Jul 2008)
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Location, Location, Location

(TimeOut HK, Jul 2008)
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Crossing Over

(TimeOut HK, Jun 2008)
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Summer of the Panda

(TimeOut HK, Jun 2008)
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La Dolce Vita

(TimeOut HK, Jun 2008)

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Tomyam Pladib

(Artforum Online, May 2008)

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Wong and To on the Beach

(TimeOut HK, May 2008)
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From the Barricades to the Box Office

(TimeOut HK, May 2008)

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Ghost Metropolis

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(video/installation, 2008)

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In the Realm of the Censors

(TimeOut HK, Apr 2008)

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Shuffle: Carol Lai Miu-Suet

(Screen Daily, Mar 2008)

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The Bus: Pang Ho Cheung

(Screen Daily, Mar 2008)

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Hong Kong Filmart

(Screen Daily, Feb 2008)

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Film Poll 2007

(The Fanzine, Dec 2007)

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This Old House

(South China Morning Post, Aug 2007)

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Festival Reels from Glitz to Glitches

(South China Morning Post, Aug 2007)

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New Hope for Hong Kong Cinema

(Tomorrow Unlimited, Jul 2007)
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Free Radical

(Tomorrow Unlimited, Jul 2007)
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Cheap Shots

(South China Morning Post, Mar 2007)

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Film Studies: Short Orders

(South China Morning Post, Sep 2006)

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Film Studies: Short Orders

(South China Morning Post, Sep 2006)

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