Container #21 Queens of the Qing Dynasty screening
And our forthcoming screening of Pink Narcissus!
Hello. Thank you once again for joining us.
Next Screening Tuesday, June 20:
Queens of the Qing Dynasty, Ashley McKenzie, 2022, 122m
A suicidal teen, Star develops a candid rapport with An, a student from Shanghai assigned to watch her in hospital. A nightly exchange of secrets, text messages and possessions quickly expand the boundaries of their relationship and alters their inner chemistry.
Ashley McKenzie is regional artist in the best possible sense. Grounded in the space and circumstances of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, McKenzie’s films are character studies that draw on a deep knowledge of her characters lives, their environment and the accumulative social pressure that shapes them. Yet McKenzie’s @queensoftheqingdynasty avoids the typical gestures of realism, instead trapping us within a radical intimacy, with Star and An, through startling close-ups, and a sound design that merges score and sound effects into subjectivity.
Unrated 15+
With thanks to Ashley McKenzie
Additional Readings (for those who have the time and curiosity):
Since we like Queens of the Qing Dynasty we thought we’d share a few of the more interesting reviews—in Metrograph, In Review and The New York Times, and interviews with Mubi, Filmmaker and Film Comment.(Which is an older interview, but covers McKenzie’s breakthrough feature Werewolf and her connections with Nova Scotia in more depth.)
Upcoming Screenings:
20 June: Ashley McKenzie’s Queens of the Qing Dynasty
4 July: James Bidgood’s Pink Narcissus (pictured above and in partnership with Prototype.)
Thank you. We look forward to catching you tonight for our screening of Queens of the Qing Dynasty and then in a fortnight for our screening of Pink Narcissus (along with Peter Strickland’s Blank Narcissus (pictured above), a project we’ve been thinking about since *checks notes* 2018.