desertfilmsociety
presents
ELECTRIC SHADOWS
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Saturday, April 1, 2006 Theatres - Doors Open at 9:00 a.m. Coffee & Muffins Available Film Introduction at 9:20 a.m. Screening Begins at 9:30 a.m. Q&A Session following the screening DFS
Members present 2006 Membership Card
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| Can you imagine a Chinese
Cinema Paradiso? Xiao Jiang can, and her highly entertaining début
feature gives us a pretty vivid impression of what it might be like. Her
storyline - divided between Beijing now and Ningxia thirty years ago -
is about what it takes to heal grievous emotional wounds within a family.
But all of her central characters are movie fans, and the key events in
their lives are inextricably linked to the movies they saw and loved. Unless
you grew up in China, you may not know the movies in question, but you'll
recognize the syndrome.
ELECTRIC SHADOWS opens in present-day Beijing with a disastrous encounter between delivery boy Dabing (Xia Yu, who won the Best Actor prize in Venice for In the Heat of the Sun) and Ling Ling (Qi Zhongyang). Dabing is the one with a bump on his head, but Ling Ling's the one who ends up in hospital, receiving overdue treatment for a life that has left her dazed, confused and hurt. He visits her home to keep her fish fed and starts reading her diary. It tells a story that shocks him in ways he could never have expected, but it also reminds him of his own childhood passion for the movies. Those were the days before television, when movies were the only real mass medium and when audiences breathed and dreamed as one. –Rotterdam International Film Festival “A lovely, elegant paean to the joy and liberty that films offer… ELECTRIC SHADOWS is sweet and accomplished and Xiao Jiang is a terrific new find.” - The Hollywood Reporter Festivals/Awards 2004 Marrakech International Film Festival - Winner, Special Jury Award 2004 Toronto International Film Festival 2004 Pusan International Film Festival 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival 2005 Rotterdam International Film Festival 2005 Deauville Asian Film Festival - Winner, Lotus Premiere Award RUNNING TIME: 95 Minutes LANGUAGE: Mandarin with English Sub-Titles |
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