WUYONG | USELESS DIRECTED
BY JIA ZHANG-KE / CINETOILE-SERIES
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - 8 PM | Chinese Fashion designer Ma Ke will
introduce the movie.
Through the hissing buzz of sewing we are carried through the day to
day happenings of a Chinese garment factory. What clothing means to
many of the workers seems irrelevant. On a macrocosmic whole, making
clothing is simply their job, like making anything else. Ma Ke, however,
the designer featured in the three part documentary entitled "Useless",
by Director Jia Zhang-Ke, fashion is hardly a shallow endeavor. After
ten years of running a successful label of her own, Ma Ke has taken
clothing intoher own hands, literally. Ma Ke handcrafts everything personally
for her latest venture, a collection titled "WUYONG", which
translates to "Useless". Her clothing, though strikingly sculptural
and earthbound, is hardly anything Ready-to-Wear, hence "Useless",
but certainly of the caliber of clothes one cherishes. As a finishing
touch, Ma Ke buries her clothing in the ground and lets earth take over,
to give them history. This handcrafted artisanship signifies the opposite
of what China is known for in the fashion industry: the assembly line
and mass production. Ma Ke's designs are permanent with stories, organic
histories, and emotions. Finally, in the third segment of the documentary,
we return from the glittering world of Paris, France to the dusty mining
town of Fenyang, in the province of Shanxi, China. Inside one tailor
shop, the viewer acts as voyeur into memoirs and the meaning of fashion,
according to the local clothiers. In its paradoxical contexts, "Useless"
is a quiet exploration of fashion in a powerful voice.
With a patient, painterly eye, Jia's vivid characterizations and landscapes
possess a mesmerizing, often melancholic beauty, and are less political
than humanist in their pointed critiques of China's current historical
trends. …a ruminative essay on the meaning and function of clothing
in Chinese society: how it is manufactured and sold, as well as the
contrasting relationships between people and their clothing, according
to their status in society… Christopher Bourne, Meniscus Magazine
SUNDANCE KABUKI CINEMA - 1881 POST STREET - SAN FRANCISCO CA 94115 -
TEL 415 929 4650
WUYONG | Useless | Directed by Jia Zhang-Ke |
Invited to screen at the 51st London Film Festival 2007 | 45th New York
Film Festival 2007 | Closing film of Hong Kong Asian Film Festival 2007
| Horizon Documentary Award at Venice Film Festival 2007
The
Arts of Fashion Foundation is a 501(c) (3), public, non-profit organization,
linking both academics and professionals alike and is dedicated in fostering
international cultural exchange through the creation of a variety of
educational events meant to facilitate critical thinking among artists,
designers, scholars and students. The primary focus of the foundation
is the continuous support of creativity and design in fashion and the
arts linked to it
