Thursday, June 21, 2007

Shanghai gets an arthouse theater

source: shanghaiist.com

From varietyasiaonline.com:

Shanghai, commercial capital of China, finally has itself an art-house cinema.

The Shanghai Hong Miao Art Film Center was opened on Tuesday night as one of the highlights of this year's Shanghai international Film Festival (June 16-24). Four generations of local directors, including Lu Chuan, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Xie Jin and Wu Yigong, cut the red ribbon at the opening event on Shanghai's famous Nanjing Road.

Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Go Master ­ which is competing at this year's festival ­ premiered at the new film center.

Later on in this article, we found this:

To date, art house fans in Shanghai and Beijing have been catered for by non-commercial organisations like Maria's Choice (in Shanghai) and Cherry Lane (in Beijing), that screen local art films on an regular basis to largely expats crowds.

Is Maria's Choice still going on? It's true that there have been and continue to be people and groups screening art films, but with one big difference: they weren't in theaters, at least not all the time. Being able to watch art films in the theater is a big improvement, but all that will depend on if this new theater lasts or becomes yet another victim of the bottom line. According to the Shanghai Daily, the theater can hold about 120 people and tickets will sell for 40 yuan.

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