Flying Film Festival Presents SHANZHAI SCREENS Film Review — Trapped in Repetition

In an alley, within a row of cubicles stretching into a long hallway, sit several artists. Each cube holds someone painting a landscape of some sort; some show trees while some show rivers and brooks. The scene shifts back and forth between the paintings. While the painters paint, phones sit on tables or easels, each depicting a painted scene of nature. It soon becomes clear that the painters are copying paintings we see on the phones.

Shanzhai Screens is a short film directed by Paul Heintz which looks at the world of copy painting within Shenzhen and the lives of those who partake in it. The film follows several people as they make notes, calls and work on several paintings that depict actual paintings that already exist. Their notes detail their process as well as their feelings about dreams they had and what they are doing now.

Squares are a motif that come up many times in the film. From the hallways, to the cubicles, to the house and the paintings. The film is littered with harsh sides and angles, which add to a feeling of being trapped in. This gives context to a monologue said by one of the artists. He is talking through a phone that is on a dashboard. The phone frames him in. He talks about how he dreamt he was painting in an entirely new technique that was so new and innovative, but it was hard to imagine. We share in his feeling of being caged.

Shanzhai Screens is especially recommended for those who love the art of painting, and visually beautiful films.

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CREATIVE TEAM

Directed by Paul Heintz
Produced by Thomas Hakin and Julien Graff
Craftsmanship artistic support and management by Huang Zhenqian
Picture and Sound by Paul Heintz
3D by Thibaut Rostagret

For more information on SHANZHAI SCREENS, go to the Flying Film Festival website.

Photos courtesy of Flying Film Festival.