Who's in

Doco focuses on fashion with a conscience

Award-winning director Jia Zhangke (pictured right) has completed the filming of his latest work - a documentary on young woman designer Ma Ke (pictured left) and her brand "Wu Yong"(Use-less).

The film is expected to include three stories set in Guangzhou, Paris and Fenyang, a small town in North China's Shanxi Province, revolving around the brand's show at the 2007 Paris Fashion Week.

Jia is excited about the upcoming editing, which will turn the 60-hour materials into an 80-minute film.

Ma is the first mainland woman designer to be invited to the Paris Fashion week with her own label. Jia said it was her clear understanding of this consumption era and the unique representation of her thoughts in her costumes that inspired him to complete the documentary.

This is Jia's second documentary on an artist. The first was Dong, on painter Liu Xiaodong, whose oil painting on people in the Three Gorges area was auctioned for a record $2.75 million last winter. Jia said he enjoyed looking at artists with a keen insight into the times.

Games collection shows how far we've come

Olympic Spirit Illustrated, an image exhibition on three facets of the 2008 Olympics - Green Olympics, High-tech Olympics and People's Olympics - and how Beijing will live up to them, is now on at the ancient Zhengyang Gate and will run till Thursday. It will be followed by a tour of schools, communities and prisons.

This is the first time the Beijing government is promoting the three Olympics concepts with a photo exhibition. In addition to a brief history of the Games, viewers will also learn what Beijing has done to prepare for it from the 240 pictures on show.

A digital version of this exhibition is available on the website of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage.

Zhengyang Gate, with a 600-year history, is located less than a kilometer from Tian'anmen Square.

Jet and The Warlords storm the web

The official website of The Warlords (Tou Ming Zhuang), a costume epic starring Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro, opened on Sina.com recently. The filming overlapped with the early preparations for Jet Li's The One Foundation, a charity which calls on everybody to donate at least one yuan ($ 0.13) a month for those in need of help.

Two of the film's producers, China Film Group and Hong Kong's Media Asia, have promised to work as the foundation's cooperative partners. Many members of the crew are working as the foundation's permanent volunteers. And the film's extended merchandises will be auctioned for the foundation, too.

The official site contains cinephile-friendly materials on the story, characters and various behind-the-scene glimpses. Two interesting features are a special column detailing the historical background of the story and an interactive corner for netizens to connect online with the cast.

The heroic tale of three brothers and their struggle in the midst of war and political upheaval, is expected to be screened in December this year.

China Daily

(China Daily 07/17/2007 page18)