.

Sunday, October 23 @ 6pm

.

at The Fifth Estate, 506 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn
(R or F train to 4th Avenue/9th Street)

.

SUPER, GIRLS (China, 2007, 73 minutes)

tickets = $10
.
(full details and tickets)

.

.

If you want to see a side of China you haven’t seen before, this is the documentary for you. SUPER GIRLS is the biggest, baddest, most totally humoungous version of American Idol in the world, and it happens in China, sucking in 250 million – 400 million viewers. It was canceled in 2011 because the government was worried that it was having a toxic effect on the youth, but this documentary was shot during the 2007 season when SUPER GIRLS fury was at its highest. Winners and runners-up from the show have gone on to star in movies, (Li Yuchun, who plays Simon Yam’s badass daughter in BODYGUARDS & ASSASSINS) and others have gone on to star in the popular Japanese TV show, Morning Musume (Li Chun was in the 2006 contest and then performed as a Morning Musume cast member under the name Junjun). But director Jian Yi gets behind the scenes and all up in these girls’ lives as they enter one of the most intense experiences of their lives. It’s also, fascinatingly enough, one of the years when the “boy-girl” look was popular, so almost all of the contestants maintain carefully androgynous looks that make all the young girls look a bit like young boys.

.

Read more about the movie.

And even more.

.

.

Full screening details including tickets for sale.

.