True/False Films

Disorder
Dir. Huang Weikai; 58 min.
Friday, Feb. 26 / 10:30PM / Big Ragtag
Saturday, Feb. 27 / 12:30PM / The Chapel
Saturday, Feb. 27 / 10:30PM / Forrest Theater

In person: director Huang Weikei

Sneak preview. In a brief — but incredibly compelling — hour, up-and-coming Chinese director Huang Weikai earns the nickname "documentary's David Lynch." Disorder, his mysterious and hypnotic sophomore effort, is a disturbing, lyrical portrait of hell on earth, weaving together a series of striking observational scenes from the streets of Guangzhou, China. Between the chilling, surreal content, creepy, grainy aesthetic and disturbing lack of exposition, Disorder is captivating from start to finish. Fiction filmmakers have been painting dystopian landscapes for decades, often as warning bells for the paranoid masses. The settings are predictable; today's 2012 was yesterday's Y2K. Huang Weikai's vision is startling not just because it's real but because it's grounded in the present. Now is the future of the past. Plays with Photograph of Jesus (dir. Laurie Hill; 7 min.): A photography archive gets inundated with the strangest requests as illustrated in this clever, animated short. (CB)