Welcome Week Screenings of Xiaolu Guo Films

Welcome Week Screenings

She, A Chinese

To celebrate the new academic year, UCL Urban Laboratory, invite students and friends to screenings of two of Xiaolu Guo's films in one week. Xiaolu recently delivered the annual Cities Imaginaries lecture and we are delighted to share more of her work. 

Our first screening will be "She, A Chinese" at One Pool Street Cinema on Wednesday 25 September, 18:30-20:00:

A homage to Godard’s 1967’s La Chinoise, this is a portrait of a young woman on a journey of self-discovery in 14 chapters. Mei leaves her home village in southern China after refusing a marriage proposal, and heads to the big city. After a tragic encounter with a hit man she arrives in Britain. Her decisions about places and men are impulsive and infused by an instinct for freedom. Mei is an existential character born from a hybrid Chinese-European cinema.

Book to Attend 25 September Screening

Late at Night – Voices of Ordinary Madness

Filmmaker and author Xiaolu Guo presents her 2013 documentary essay, Late at Night - Voices of Ordinary Madness, in partnership with UCL Urban Laboratory on Friday 27 September, 18:20-20:30. 

Xiaolu will be in conversation with renowned sound designer and editor Philippe Ciompi, discussing their creative approach to building-space, the role of 'self', and their collaborative work to date. This is great opportunity to come together and celebrate Xiaolu's new book 'My Battle of Hastings' whilst reflecting on her earlier work, and how the situational experience of being new to London inspired her documentary practice. 

Introduced by a Warhol-esque newsreader, Late at Night presents the voices of a number of Londoners – street gangsters, beggars, working class heroes, bankers and preachers – most of them excluded from the society and the area they live in, the newly gentrified London East End. Their anguished words build a network of responses to the hyper capitalist world we live in.

George Orwell wrote: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.” Xiaolu Guo’s film essay focuses on Britain’s mean streets and its dwellers, each fighting their ground in their own way. The filmmaker uses quotes, archives and media materials to construct an image of contemporary Britain and leads us to question our future under the institutional madness of global capitalism.

Followed by a Q&A with director Xiaolu Guo and editor and sound designer Philippe Ciompi. Presented in partnership with UCL Urban Laboratory. 

In Memory of Mark Fisher (1968-2017), author of Capitalist Realism

Follow the link below to book to attend. Tickets cost £9 per person (£7 concession): 

Book to Attend 27 September Screening

Xiaolu Guo is a Chinese British novelist, memoirist and filmmaker. Her novels include A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, and I Am China. Her memoir Once Upon a Time In The East won the National Book Critics Circle Award 2017 and shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Her recent novel, A Lover’s Discourse, shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020 and Radical is published by Chatto 2023. Named as a Granta’s Best of Young British Novelist in 2013, she has also directed a dozen films.  

Her feature film She, a Chinese received the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Festival 2009. Her documentary We Went to Wonderland was in the Official Selection of ND/NF at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. She has been a visiting professor at Columbia University and Baruch College in New York. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her new book is My Battle of Hastings, published by Vintage 2024. 

More Information:

• Cities Imaginaries

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