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Press Release: Chinese Visual Festival, which ran from 8th May until 12th June in partnership with King’s College London, is delighted to announce the results of its 2013 Audience Awards, as voted for by members of the public attending the festival: 3Rd Prize to Rice Distribution (Tammy Cheung) 2Nd Prize to The Transition Period (Zhou Hao) 1St Prize to Disorder (Huang Weikai) Huang Weikai’s Disorder, which also won the festival’s Jury Award 1st Prize, is unquestionably one of the most significant modern independent Chinese documentaries. A collage assembled from thousands of hours of black and white footage, Disorder presents a dizzying snapshot of life in Guangzhou, leaping between random stories through a stream of arresting images, including traffic accidents, police action, rampaging pigs and more. The end result is a breathless and entertaining experience like no other, alternately shocking and amusing, and the film’s double award win...

Part of his series exploring institutions in China, Zhou Hao’s remarkable 2009 documentary “The Transition Period” offers an amazingly frank look at the workings of the Chinese government as it follows a civil servant during his last three months as party secretary of an underdeveloped county. Guo Yongchang is the politician in question, the party secretary of the Committee of the Communist Party of Gushi County in Xinyang Municipality of Henan Province, which has a population of around 1.6 million spread across 32 smaller towns. As with other counties, Gushi is administered by both a county government and a county party committee. In the film, Zhou reveals the many complexities of Guo’s job and the way in which personal relations often take precedence over regulations in Chinese politics, depicting the constant manipulation needed to keep farmers, workers and other factions onside, and the level to which rules are treated as flexible...

About the Director: Zhou Hao was born in 1968 in China. He previously worked as a photographer at Xinhua News Agency and Southern Weekend. He started making documentary films in 2001 and now lives in Guangzhou. Filmography: Houjie Township (2003), Senior Year (2005), Using (2007), Cotton (2010), The Transition Period (2009), Cop Shop (2009), Cop Shop II (2011) James Mudge: I believe you worked as a photographer before – what inspired you to start making documentary films? Zhou Hao: Conventional media is not much fun, every newspaper has their point of view and is just a medium for certain voices. After staying with them for over 10 years, I want more freedom, less restriction. Documentary is a freer medium. In making Senior Year, how was it working with the high school students? The film feels very natural, and they seem to have been very much at ease with you and the camera. Among all of my films, Senior Year is...