May A Billion Guerrilla Filmmakers Bloom: (Non)filmmaker and media philosopher visits Ningbo

Citation

Fleming D (2016) May A Billion Guerrilla Filmmakers Bloom: (Non)filmmaker and media philosopher visits Ningbo. Ningbo Guide, 10 (8), pp. 48-49. http://ningboguide.com/ngmags/2016/ningboguide201601.pdf

Abstract
The media philosopher and guerrilla filmmaker William Brown spent a month in Ningbo thanks to the University of Nottingham Ningbo China’s (UNNC) RKE visiting scholar scheme. While in town he was kept incredibly busy by his hosts, delivering a guest lecture on the documentary filmmaking course for UNNC’s 4th year International Communication (IC) students, doing a public seminar on contemporary film acting to a packed ‘standing room only’ room, as well as two separate presentations for staff and students at UNNC and NIT (Ningbo Institute of Technology) on his latest book about ‘non-cinema’ and ‘barbarian philosophy.' In amongst all this William also managed to find time to work on a new co-authored publication and undertake some documentary filmmaking around the streets of Ningbo and Shanghai. He also made time to introduce and screen his latest experimental horror film (or what he playfully calls his ‘horrific experiment’) Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux (2015); a low budget film funded via Kickstarter.com and produced by Brown’s ‘Beg Steal Borrow’ outfit for around GBP 4,000 (around RMB 40,000). Besides screening his own film (which he wrote, funded, directed, performed in, and edited) William also managed to run two free Guerrilla Filmmaking Workshops for students undertaking the ‘Communication and Technology’ module. There, participants were challenged to make a no budget film about life at UNNC, and to publically share their work with others on the big screen. One delirious film, made by a student that goes by the English name of ‘Monkey’, lasted for over 50 minutes! After spending a month in Ningbo, and just before he was about to fly home for a family Christmas, I took the chance to sit down with William and talk about his impressions of Ningbo and China.

Journal
Ningbo Guide: Volume 10, Issue 8