Jianbing in Beijing was one of the outstanding student video productions recognized at the Flux Film Festival, an event run by students of Beijing City International School (BCIS) on May 13. It won the Best Documentary category, besting three other productions. It also received the Invisible People special award as a recognition for the film’s effort to tell the story of people who don’t get noticed in today’s society.

“One of our friends got jianbing outside of our school and at that same time, we were coming up with an idea for our film, and then he was like ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if you made a film about street food?'” said Tony Huang, the student director of Jianbing in Beijing. The tenth-grader at the International School of Beijing (ISB) told beijingkids that it took him and teammates Keith Leung (G10), Jed Henderschedt (G10), Naime Gonzales, (G12) Hirotake Wang (G9), and Stanley Lian (G12) three months to complete the documentary, from story ideation to filming to video rendering.They started filming in September 2016.

Tony Huang’s Jianbing in Beijing shows a day in the life of a jianbing maker.

Prior to the Flux, Huang and his team entered Jianbing at the Across Asia Youth Film Festival in Singapore last March. “I felt like it was an honor to have a film shown at a large festival that was sponsored by HBO, Disney and MediaCorp,” he said, “It was amazing to get feedback from their general managers and it was great to get some real feedback from real people in the audience about my film.” Huang said he plans to pursue a college degree in film in the US and produce his dream project: a film, not necessarily a documentary, that will give inspiration to other people.

Other outstanding student productions were the following:

• Best Narrative
  • High School: The Game by Siew Png Sim, Yew Chung International School Shanghai**
  • Middle School: The Student Reunion by Melanie Huang, Beijing City International School
• Best Documentary
  • High School: Jian Bing in Beijing by Tony Huang, International School of Beijing
  • Middle School: Animation and Film Exploria by Steve Parfitt, Prem Tinsulanonda International School**
  • Open School: Prem Art: April by Alan Fleming**
• Best Public Service Announcement/Commercial
  • High School: Change by Amy Ai, Beijing International School
  • Middle School: Littering by Thorsangngam, Cindy Han and Tunn Patong, Prem Tinsulanonda International School
• Best Animation
  • High School: The Music by Arvin Cong: Beijing City International School
• Best Music Video
  • Middle School: Dream by Toby Yang, Beijing No.80 Middle School

**VPN needed to see the video

Now in its seventh year, “the Flux aims to celebrate the ingenuity and creativity of students … and gives (them) a chance to dream, create and enter a short film in (a festival),” BCIS said. The school invited four professionals from the local and international film industry to judge 73 student productions in six categories. The student contestants came from eight different international schools across China.

All the profits from the festival will go to a foundation that supports treatment of children with cleft palates. “With the inclusion of a Canadian organization that sponsored ‘The Invisible People’ award, it was only fitting that funds created from this event would go towards such a great cause,” said Mark Ellison, the teacher organizer of Flux.  “The ‘Help a Child Smile’ organization was set up to help those that aren’t able to enjoy life the way we do …  children with cleft palates.”

“The idea of this year’s Flux was an opportunity to provide the platform for the growth of the film festival. This year’s festival looked to provide the blueprint and hopefully the platform that would enable it to continue its success.”

Event organizers welcoming the audience at the Flux Film Festival.

Photos: Andy Penafuerte, courtesy of BCIS, Tony Huang

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Email: andypenafuerte@beijing-kids.com
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Sponsored by Beijing City International School (BCIS). Located in Beijing’s CBD, BCIS lives by its motto: “Empowering and Inspiring Through Challenge and Compassion.” This not-for-profit, co-educational day school provides a personalized, inclusive international curriculum under the International Baccalaureate (IB) World School system, offering the PYP, MYP and DP to both expatriate and Chinese national students from Toddler to Grade 12. For more information, please email admissions@bcis.cn 

Lights, Camera, Action! Once again, Beijing City International School is accepting entries for its 2016 Flux Film Festival, an annual event that has become something of a school tradition since beginning back in 2011. The festival is open to student and teacher filmmakers from all over the world, and in the past has enjoyed participation from all over China and much further beyond. Last year, for example, saw entries from the US, Germany and Italy.

Over the years, the Flux has evolved from an “Awards Show” format to a more open and public show as was employed in Flux 2015. It is a much-celebrated event, chiefly because it is student-led, and is a wonderful opportunity to open up the school community and share artistic talent. Entries are divided into age groups and categories, with the youngest entrants usually of elementary school age, and the oldest being high school seniors, and teachers (as of 2014). Categories have included animated films, public service announcements (PSA), music videos, special effects and many others.

Judging is carried out by industry professionals, including critics, filmmakers and others involved in the arts. Flux 2015, for example, saw noted Chinese filmmakers, Moxie Peng and Fan Popo join the panel. The judges represent one of the strongest elements of the Flux, which is that participants can have their work scrutinized by a professional of the film world. This adds a lot of meaning to an award, and helps the organizing students attract entries of the highest possible quality.

Logistically, the competition would be a lot simpler if kept within BCIS, but the students have always felt that opening the event up to the whole world is what makes is truly unique among events in the international school community. Last year’s event presented unique challenges, because it was integrated into one of BCIS’ largest community events, “Spring in the City.” The Flux group established a viewing area where the 3000 or so visitors could come and see the more-than 150 film entries, and even take part in choosing a “People’s Choice Award” winner. A well-understood problem with the global nature of the competition is that award winners would not be able to be at BCIS to receive their awards. The students creatively solved this by asking all award winners to prepare an acceptance video, so that when winners were announced, we were able to hear from all award winners. In fact, some of the acceptance videos were thoroughly Flux-worthy themselves!

The Flux will be happening again in 2016, with the deadline for entries set at March 19, 2016. If you are interested in taking part, get filming now! The Flux Website is down temporarily, but a new Flux page will be announced at www.bcis.cn in the coming weeks.

Photo: Sui

Calling all amateur filmmakers! Beijing City International School (BCIS) is hosting the fourth annual Flux Film Festival on Saturday, May 9 at the school’s main campus. The festival is still open to submissions from the wider community and the four-person judging panel has just been announced.

The event includes six categories: narrative film, documentary, animation, PSAs/commercials, music videos, and Sweded films. The latter refers to remakes of scenes from existing films. There are four age groups: elementary (K-G5), middle school (G6-8), high school (G9-12), and adults. The deadline for submissions is Friday, April 10.

The judges for this year’s festival are Popo Fan, Vicky Mohieddeen, Moxie Peng and Richard Widmer.

Popo Fan is an openly gay filmmaker, writer, and activist whose documentaries include The Good Days and Chinese Closet. A graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, he is also the director of the China Queer Film Festival Tour and the author of Happy Together: A Complete Record of One Hundred Queer Films.

Originally from Scotland, Vicky Mohieddeen is a filmmaker and video editor based in Beijing. Many of you may know her from Electric Shadows, the organization that screens free films on the Bookworm’s rooftop during the warmer months. She is currently the creative projects manager for Koryo Tours, a travel outfit specializing in North Korea. Mohieddeen’s latest project, Enter Pyongyang, has received 4 million views.

Moxie Peng is an independent filmmaker and scriptwriter whose works include Tiger Lily, From Me to We, and Micro Search. His films have been screened at events like the Queer Film Festival Beijing, Asian Cinema Week, and BarCamp Beijing. Currently, Peng produces TV commercials and is working on his next queer film, My 17 Gay Friends.

Richard Widmer is an American documentary filmmaker and artist whose diverse body of work explores artistic practice and cross-cultural narratives. His work has been screened all over the world (including the 2013 Venice Biennale). Widmer has also collaborated with and filmed many Chinese artists.

To find out more about the Flux Film Festival, check out our March issue or visit BCIS’ website. To enter a submission, click here. For more information, email flux@bcis.cn.

Photo: davidd (via Flickr)

Families relocating to Beijing need help to navigate the shops, banks, paying utilities, grocery stores, and much more; this is where ayis come in. In most countries, people use agencies to hire nannies and cleaners, which makes it easier to get a standardized rate and so forth. However, there isn’t a industry standard for ayis here in China, so most families  just try to figure things out on the fly. We compiled the most topical issues such as pay and opinions from a recent ayi survey in our feature. Find out if you are paying too much or too little?

We have interviews with guest authors and illustrators taking part in The Bookworm Literary Festival. Also, BCIS’s Flux Film Festival is spotlighted as we look at how students are preparing for the big day(s).

In our health columns, Dr. Melissa Rodriguez and Dr. Dorothy Dexter touch on tips of managing the "Beijing Cough" and kids eating enough respectively. In our health article we look at how to cope with a special needs child. 

Get to most out of Sam’s Club in our Talking Shop section and get felting for Birthdays as conducted by Moon Hare Workshop. Rebecca Archer gets a new look from Frank Provost. Brothers sample the kids menu at Tiago and learn how to teach your ayi to make Chicken Piccata in our dining section.

Read about the adventures the Nichols family had in a trip to Myanmar (Burma). Beijing by Heart take you through a literary excursion. Parents and regular columnists Christopher Lay and Jennifer Ambrose touch on the role of literature in their lives and kids lives.

Get to read what Daystar students have to say about their ayi both at home and in school as part of their gratitude project. ISB middle school students ask Penguin Random House’s managing director questions about publishing. See the art work done by 3e International School students.

If you wish to send us news, submit your little bundle of joy to appear in the magazine’s New Arrival section then send an email to editor@beijing-kids.com

 Check out our digital version here, for those who wish to get a printed copy then send an email to distribution@truerun.com.