Join us for a screening and discussion of No Rule is Our Rule, a documentary film about friendship between two fiercely independent, interdisciplinary female dance artists Eiko Otake and Wen Hui. Eiko grew up in postwar Japan and has lived in New York since 1970s. 8 years younger, Beijing based Wen Hui grew up during the Cultural Revolution in China and shows her work internationally. They spent a month together in China in January 2020, when the surge of COVID-19 became first known to the general public. Postponing their physical collaboration, Eiko and Wen Hui continued to converse candidly over Zoom and co-edited the footage they filmed in China. The process has deepened their mutual understanding  of their past works created and presented in different historical and social contexts.  

This event marks Wen Hui's first return to New York since 2018, when she presented her work Red at Asia Society. The 76-minute film screening will be followed by a discussion with the artists themselves. Yiru Chen, who joined Eiko and Wen Hui in editing, will also participate in the conversation, which is moderated by Zhen Zhang, Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies at NYU Tisch and founding Director of the Asian Film and Media Initiative. 

No Rule is Our Rule was recently selected for the Munich New Wave Film Festival and won Best Feature Documentary at the Japan International Film Festival this year. 

Asia Society
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8:00pm
No Rule Is Our Rule 没有規則是我們的規則 (Wen Hui & Eiko Otake, 2022, 66 min.)
Q & A with filmmakers moderated by Zhen Zhang and Angela Zito

In this first gathering since the pandemic, we celebrate the two-decade journey of the Reel China Biennial, as well as the indomitable spirit and creative expression of independent filmmakers within and outside China. This milestone edition of Reel China brings back to NYC innovative and bold works by veteran filmmakers in the PRC along with diaspora and emerging Sinophone voices. From a frenetic Beijing on the eve of the Olympics to the searching for lost homes and new visions in internal and external exile, there are narrative and visual surprises. The program of short and long films, fiction and non-fiction in analog and digital formats, bears sharp and delicate witness to the tumultuous changes in China and the world in the 21st century.

Co-organized by

Zhen Zhang, Director of Asian Film Media Initiative, NYU
Angela Zito, Director of the Center for Religion and Media, NYU
Cristina Cajulis, Events Coordinator, Cinema Studies Department, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU

Free and open to the public. RSVP required. NYU ID and Violet Go pass OR proof of vaccination and approved campus access needed for entry. Absolutely no exceptions. RSVPs must be received by Wednesday, October 19, 2022.

Preferred seating on a first come, first served basis. Plan to arrive early.

10th Reel China Biennial at NYU
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A rare screening of works created during the pandemic will be followed by a conversation with the artist.

Presented by the Mills College Dance Department and Mills Performing Arts

Open to the public, with both in-person and via live stream. Registration is required.

In-Person:

$5 to $30 General Admission, Free with valid Mills ID.
Capacity is limited and Proof of Vaccination is required.
Face Coverings are required, at all times, in all venues.
For more info and a list of accepted documents visit: Mills College COVID-19 Response for event guests.

Live Stream: 

Free -or- Pay What You Wish.
Live Stream link will be provided on the day of the event

This rare screening of works created during the pandemic will be followed by a conversation with the artist.Acclaimed performance artist Eiko Otake will present three of her evocative short films at Mills College’s historic Marilyn McArthur Holland Theater in Lisser Hall, on Feb. 18 at 7 pm and followed by a conversation between Otake and artist/scholar Sheldon Smith.

The films to be screened, all created during the pandemic, include A Body in a Cemetery (15 min), an edited recording of her September 2020 performance in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, mourning the dead from the pandemic as well as from past centuries;  and  

Projecting Fukushima in Tokyo (35 min), which captures Eiko performing throughout Tokyo’s streets and underground locations, marking the 10-year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. Eiko will conclude the evening with a report on her new work, Slow Turn, which includes a monologue performed on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks along the Hudson River near where the Twin Towers once stood.  

Otake, who is now in her 70s, has been surprising audiences worldwide since she set out in 2014 to make work on her own. The films she will share at Mills are part of this prodigious collection of intimate, emotionally evocative, and aesthetically arresting works that leave the stage behind, and place her in environments ranging from a train station in Philadelphia to the coastline of Fukushima. A 2022 Mills Performing Artist in Residence, Otake seems more inspired than ever, and has created a not-to-be-missed body of work that wrestles with destruction, mortality, relationship to the land, kinship and history. 

This screening marks Otake’s first public event after turning 70 and the beginning of her next 10-year project: Eiko Invites Herself. 

November 29, 2021 7:00PM
Chapman Fnd. Recital Hall

In a career that has included performances at the most prestigious art centers in the world, Eiko Otake now focuses on the development of work inspired by her six visits to the nuclear fallout zones around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in Japan. By placing her body in-situ in sometimes unusual locations around the world, she creates emotional, evocative and often jarring juxtapositions, encouraging the viewer to witness and assess their relationship to surroundings. Ten years after the disaster, Eiko has shown a rare continuity in pursuing a theme of nuclear matters and the possibility of an artist’s involvement in the issue.

ENT Center for the Arts at UCCS
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