Hidden in Plain Sight: “Forgotten” Films and the Cinephiliac Impulse

• In Event: The Forgotten, the Repressed, and the Marginalized in Chinese Film History, 1940s-2010s

Abstract

The essay examines recent practices of redeeming “forgotten” PRC films. With a few notable exceptions (such as Love and Duty [1931]), no film has remained truly unknown; rather, scholars, critics and archivists have renewed their interest in specific films, genres, or periods. I argue that this practice, while inherent to the historian’s work, also owes to a contemporary cinephiliac impulse, which takes the shape of collecting film copies, hunting down archival material on the second-hand market, and consuming online film criticism.

I trace the development of these cinephiliac habits in the past decade, through interviews with lay collectors, DVD producers, online commentators, and scholars (categories that partly overlap). I suggest that they are motivated by the proliferation of digitized materials, the growing use of the moving image as a vehicle of nostalgia, and the surge of social media in forming collective identity. These interlinked factors create a community of connoisseurs who range from academic scholars to amateur fans.

I focus in my presentation on the recent revival of Maoist-period movies and the burgeoning study of Maoist cinema. I examine recent research, such as the monograph on Maoist cinema by Wu Di and the proceedings of the conference on cinema between 1949 and 1966, held at the China Film Archive in 2013. I juxtapose this scholarship with the distribution of films through streaming and downloads, discussion in online forums, offers of period publications on the Internet, and other forms of lay interest.

Author

• Yomi Braester, University of Washington