M+ Cinema Winter Edition

EVENT DESCRIPTION

M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, unveils the M+ Cinema Winter Edition which will be presented from January to March 2023. Tickets will go on sale starting from Monday, 12 December 2022. M+ Patrons, Affiliates and Members can enjoy a Members’ Priority Booking period with 20% discount from Friday, 9 December to Sunday, 11 December 2022.

Winter Edition programme highlights

M+ Cinema strives for diverse viewing experiences that enrich audiences’ encounters with and appreciation for visual culture. Programme highlights include Kusama’s Infinite Universe, a thematic programme in dialogue with M+’s first Special Exhibition, Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, which celebrates the inspiring vision of this singular visionary artist and others in Kusama’s greater creative community. Techno Sapiens asks the pertinent question of whether technology fosters distance from others, helps surmount it, or both. It also enquires into the different sorts of relationships offered by human beings and machines. Anatomy of a Classic: Infernal Affairs will invite audiences to revisit the modern classic of twenty-first-century Hong Kong cinema in 4K, after its twentieth anniversary. Moreover, the Infernal Affairs Trilogy Marathon will project the original 35mm film prints and will be followed by a post-screening discussion on the restoration, conception, and production of the trilogy.

Details of the programmes are as follows:

Kusama’s Infinite Universe
In response to M+’s first Special Exhibition Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, this thematic programme opens with Kusama: Infinity (2018), a documentary that traces the artist’s life from her upbringing in rural Japan, to her creative life between two continents, to her meteoric rise as a global cultural icon of the twenty-first century. Kusama’s Circle: 1960s New York and Kusama’s Circle: 1980s Tokyo present short videos documenting Kusama’s radical public performances, alongside moving image and performance works by her contemporaries. Audiences can venture even further into the visual imaginaries inspired by Kusama with two programmes of experimental films and avant-garde animations—The Patterned Screen presents works by pioneering artists that create patterns and repetitions with celluloid, video, and digital media; The Biocosmic Fantastic​ presents a deep dive into the wondrous microcosms of organic materials and their otherworldly allure. All programmes featured in Kusama’s Infinite Universe will launch in January 2023.

Kusama’s Infinite Universe is supported by sponsors of Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now—HSBC, Lead Sponsor, together with HKT as Major Sponsor, Louis Vuitton, Sino Group, and The Macallan as Supporting Sponsors, and Cathay Pacific Airways as Airline Partner of the exhibition.

Techno Sapiens
Featuring artists’ films, documentaries, and narrative features, Techno Sapiens is a six-part screening programme exploring the subjective experiences of loneliness and connection, considering how humanity is being affected, and redefined, by new technologies. Highlighted films include Lawrence Lek’s Geomancer (2017), Cao Fei’s Asia One (2018), and Spike Jonze’s Her (2013), each of which is followed by a post-screening talk. The programme will launch in early February 2023.

Previews: The Whale (2022) and To My Nineteen Year Old Self (2022)
Catch previews of the most-awaited local and foreign films! Brendan Fraser returns to the big screen in Darren Aronofsky’s latest psychological drama The Whale (2022); Mabel Cheung documents the ecstasy and agony of growing up in Hong Kong, following a group of schoolgirls at her alma mater for ten years in To My Nineteen Year Old Self (2022). Both films will be available at M+ Cinema in January 2023 before their general theatrical release.

Anatomy of a Classic: Infernal Affairs
Critically acclaimed and beloved by audiences worldwide, Infernal Affairs is a modern classic of twenty-first-century Hong Kong cinema. M+ Cinema will present a marathon screening of the award-winning trilogy; Infernal Affairs (2002), Infernal Affairs II (2003) and Infernal Affairs III (2003). The screenings will be complemented by an adaptation, The Departed (2006) by Martin Scorsese, and an American film that inspired it, Face/Off (1997) by John Woo. Anatomy of a Classic also includes a series of seminars featuring its director, screenwriter and renowned film critics who will shed light on the film adaptations, digital restorations, and the creative process. The programme will be launched in late January 2023.

Special Screening: Sátántangó (1994)
Based on the eponymous novel by László Krasznahorkai and inspired by the stepping patterns in tango, Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó (1994) follows members of a small, defunct agricultural collective in Hungary living in a post-apocalyptic landscape after the collapse of Communism. Every single shot of the 7.5-hour runtime has its own organic rhythm. Two screenings will be presented in two segments each in January and March respectively.

Rediscoveries
This recurring series continues to bring forgotten gems and restored classics to the M+ Cinema. The Ondekoza (1981) features Tai Kato’s signature extreme low-angle shots and epic mise-en-scène. This film remained virtually unseen for thirty-five years until its 4K restoration in 2016. Lost (1970) is Fan Ho’s first feature film that sprung from his 1966 experimental short. A surviving print was found and digitised in 2021, bringing the film onscreen once again. Life Is Cheap… But Toilet Paper Is Expensive (1989) represents a breakthrough in Wayne Wang’s cinematic style and is presented in a newly restored 4K version.​ The programme will launch in January 2023.

Makers and Making
The recurring Makers and Making series gives audiences behind-the-scenes access to some of the most captivating and creative minds of our time. Upcoming films include Songs for Drella (1990, restored in 2021) and Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol (1990, restored in 2019), which are both presented under the theme of Andy Warhol and The Velvet Underground. Crumb (1995) profiles pioneering underground comix pioneer Robert Crumb, while Let the Wind Carry Me (2009) spotlights Mark Lee Ping-bing as a poet of light and shadow. The programme will launch in January 2023.

Afterimage
This recurring series features works that cross formal and conceptual boundaries and identifies both foundational and emerging figures in these practices. Hybrid documentaries, essay films, artist’s moving image and their makers will be given proper attention and spotlight. This edition features the playful yet incisive work of Tulapop Saenjaroen and Meriam Bennani, two of the most exciting moving image artists working today who investigate and illustrate digital culture and its impact on our contemporary condition. The programmes Tulapop Saenjaroen: Was It You in My Head? and Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS Trilogy will be screened from late February 2023, and a post-screening talk with Saenjaroen will be held on 4 March 2023.

Fresh Eyes
This series offers audiences a glimpse into the enchanting world of animation and moving image that inspire and appeal to younger audiences, families, teenagers, and those young at heart. Highlighting imaginative stories, handcrafted imagery, dynamic film scores, and creative journeys, this new series will launch with two feature-length animation films, The Painting (2011) and Marona’s Fantastic Tale (2019) from early February 2023.

M+ Grand Stair—Stair in the Dark

Once a month on a Friday evening, Stair in the Dark offers a cinematic and relaxed atmosphere at the Grand Stair during the museum’s extended opening hours. Continuing the inaugural series Beautiful Losers, which explores youth cultures through the lens of cinema, this edition features Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Dust in the Wind (1986), an elegiac film about adolescence which draws from screenwriter Wu Nien-jen’s upbringing in rural Taiwan and his aching memories of first love. The series will also present Touki Bouki (1973), a conceptually daring film by Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty, which follows two lovers hoping to leave Senegal for the prospects of living in Europe. Considered a masterpiece of African cinema, Mambéty’s feature-length debut was restored by the World Cinema Project, an organisation founded by Martin Scorsese. The two films will be shown once respectively in January and February 2023.