M+ Screenings: Genderfluid, presented by M+ in April, highlights filmic portrayals of transgressive gender identities

M+, the museum for visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District, is delighted to present in April M+ Screenings: Genderfluid. Consisting of productions across the world, this programme demonstrates how artists and filmmakers have used the moving image to construct and portray transgressive and transformative gender identities. M+ Screenings: Genderfluid is organised in conjunction with the M+ Pavilion exhibition Ambiguously Yours: Gender in Hong Kong Popular Culture, on view at M+ Pavilion from 17 March to 21 May 2017.

“This is our fifth edition of the M+ Screenings series, which we introduced in 2015. With each edition of M+ Screenings, we deepen our understanding and appreciation of the extraordinary range of moving images. This programme highlights the diverse narratives in our midst, and also the talent of the artists and filmmakers who bring them to life onscreen,” said Ms Suhanya Raffel, Executive Director of M+.

On the theme Genderfluid, Ms Ulanda Blair, Curator, Moving Image at M+ stated, “Gender fluidity is having a watershed moment. This iteration of M+ Screenings seeks to both contextualise and expand this global conversation, highlighting how artists and filmmakers from across different generations and geographies are dismantling traditional gender categories on screen. For these makers, gender is not tethered to the binary of male/female or masculine/feminine, as is often reinforced within mainstream culture. Rather, these artists harness the inherent dynamism of the moving-image form to present gender as a multidimensional, fluctuating force. ”

M+ Screenings: Genderfluid will take place from 7 to 9 April 2017 at Broadway Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong. Consisting of 11 works that include artist videos, documentaries, narrative features, animations, performance videos and experimental films, the Genderfluid programme demonstrates the various ways artists and filmmakers have explored the complex issues of gender. In these works, gender intersects with ideas about the body, spirituality, history, tradition, nationality, sexuality, race, age and mythology. They challenge static and binary models of gender using a filmic approach. In the process, they weave a rich tapestry made up of different strands of biology, gender expression, and gender identity that overlap in nuanced and multidimensional ways.

The screenings will open with Amy Amos Gebhardt’s There Are No Others (2016), a series of majestic slow-motion shots of people floating against the clouds. These human bodies, depicted according to well-established traditions of nude portraiture, are free from the constraints of masculine and feminine binaries, which is reflected in the endless and ever-changing expanse of sky surrounding them.

Other notable works include Hazel Hill McCarthy III’s Bight of the Twin (2016), which documents a visit by ‘pandrogynous’ avant-garde performance artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge to the annual twins and voodoo festival in Benin, Africa. .

Club Ate’s screening of Ex Nilalang, a cumulative performance-video project exploring queer mythological figures from the Filipino and South East Asian diaspora, will be followed by an In Conversation with lead artists Justin Shoulder and Bhenji Ra from Sydney.

Nguyễn Trinh Thi’s Love Man, Love Woman (2007), which introduces Lưu Ngọc Đức, a famously flamboyant spirit medium of the indigenous Dao Mau (Mother Goddess) religion in Vietnam, is the closing film.

Other pieces include Barbara Hammer’s Lover Other: The Story of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore (2006), Ming Wong’s Angst Essen/Eat Fear (2008), Lu Yang’s Uterus Man (2013), Wu Tsang’s Duilian (2016), Sally Potter’s Orlando(1992), Cassils’s Inextinguishable Fire (2007-2015), and Virginia de Medeiros’s Sérgio e Simone #2 (2007-2014) (see annex for full details).

Tickets are on sale now. Programme details are available from the website www.westkowloon.hk/mplusscreenings.

Remarks

About M+
Hong Kong’s museum for visual culture – encompassing 20th and 21st  century art, design, and architecture, and moving image from Hong Kong, China, Asia, and beyond – M+ will be one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world. Located adjacent to the Art Park on the waterfront, the museum building, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, is scheduled to open in 2019.

About West Kowloon Cultural District
Located on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, the West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong. With a complex of theatres, performance spaces, and M+, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, as well as provide 23 hectares of public open space, including a two kilometre waterfront promenade.

Curators:

Ulanda Blair
Ulanda Blair is Curator, Moving Image at M+. Prior to joining the museum in September,2016, she was Curator at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne, Australia, Key projects at ACMI included exhibitions on Orry-Kelly,Yang Fudong, DreamWorks Animation, Warwick Thornton, William Kentridge, Ian Burns and Julian Rosefeldt, as well as artist-film screening programmes in the ACMI Cinemas and at the Sydney Contemporary Art Fair. Before ACMI, Ulanda worked for the Next Wave Festival and Gertrude Contemporary, both in Melbourne. She also curated numerous site-specific projects for the Setouchi Triennale and the Echigo-Tsumari Triennale in Japan. Ulanda undertook a Dean’s Scholars Bachelor of Arts (Hons) majoring in Visual Culture at Monash University, and a Masters of Publishing and Communications at the University of Melbourne.

Janis Law
Janis Law is currently the Curatorial Assistant, Moving Image at M+. Her first project with M+ is the ongoing screening series, M+ Screenings. Before working with M+, Janis was the Museum Trainee of Hong Kong Film Archive and the Education and Outreach Officer of Chung Ying Theatre. Janis holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from the University of Western Australia and an MA in Media Cultures (Distinction) from the City University of Hong Kong.

Annex - M+ Screenings: Genderfluid

Venue:
Broadway Cinematheque (Prosperous Garden, 3 Public Square Street, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon)

Tickets:
Standard Tickets - HK$85 per screening;
Concessions (Children, Seniors and Students) - HK$65 per screening;
M+ Pioneers Member Packages – HK$145 per 2 tickets per screening (only applicable to the tickets of the same screening)
BC VIP Member Tickets - HK$68 per screening.

How to book:
Online - www.cinema.com.hk;
Telephone - 2388 3188;
In Person - Tickets are available at the cinema’s box office and self-service ticketing machines.
(Concessions, M+ Pioneers Member Packages and bc VIP Member Tickets are not available for telephone bookings.)

For online and telephone bookings, a handling fee of HK$8 (Mondays to Fridays) or HK$10 (Weekends and Public Holidays) per ticket will be levied.