Trinh T Minh-ha: Shoot for the Contents + In Conversation

This screening will be followed by a public conversation between Trinh T Minh-ha and Irit Rogoff (Professor of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths University) about the film and Trinh's work

As part of the Trinh T Minh-ha retrospective, the ICA screens the artist's 1991 film Shoot for the Contents, which reflects on the political and cultural shifts in China marked by the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Rather than representing these events directly, Trinh reflects on Mao's famous saying, 'Let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend,' by intricately layering Chinese popular songs and classical music, the sayings of Mao and Confucius, women's voices and the words of artists, philosophers and other cultural workers. The images conjured up are not sweeping overviews of the city, but intimate footage of rural China and stylized interviews.

Born in Vietnam, Trinh T Minh-ha is a filmmaker, writer, composer and Professor of Rhetoric and of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work includes eight feature-length films honoured in numerous retrospectives around the world, several large-scale collaborative installations including L’Autre marche (Musée du Quai Branly, Paris 2006-2009), and Old Land New Waters (3rd Guangzhou Triennale, China 2008) and numerous publications including Lovecidal: Walking with The Disappeared (2016), D-Passage: The Digital Way (2013), Elsewhere, Within Here (2011) and Cinema Interval (1999).

She has been the recipient of many awards, including the Wild Dreamer Lifetime Achievement Award at the Subversive Festival, Zagreb, Croatia, 2014, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women's Caucus for Art, 2012 and the Trailblazers Award, MIPDOC, Cannes Documentary Film, France, 2006.

Shoot for the Contents, dir Trinh T Minh-ha, 1991, 16mm, colour, sound, 102 mins

Enjoy special multibuy prices to buy tickets to multiple films and events in the Trinh T Minh-ha season:

• Tickets for 2-3 screenings: £7 (full price) / £5 (concessions) / £4 (ICA Members) per ticket
• Tickets for 4-8 screenings:  £6 (full price) / £4 (concessions) / £3 (ICA Members) per ticket

Download the programme listing for Trinh T Minh-ha's retrospective programme here [PDF]