Americaville - Film Screening and Discussion with Director

Synopsis:

Hidden among the mountains north of Beijing, a replica of the Wyoming town of Jackson Hole promises to deliver the American dream to its several thousand Chinese residents. In Americaville, Annie Liu escapes China’s increasingly uninhabitable capital city to pursue happiness, freedom, romance, and spiritual fulfillment in Jackson Hole; only to find the American idyll harder to attain than what was promised to her.

Director’s biography:

Adam James Smith is an award-winning, US-based filmmaker originally from the United Kingdom. His films focus on the expression of identity in urban China and include The Land of Many Palaces (2015) on the “ghost city” of Ordos, Inner Mongolia and Americaville (2020) on an American Wild West-themed community in Beijing’s suburbs. Adam holds degrees from Stanford and Cambridge, the latter of which he is currently an Affiliated Filmmaker at the university’s Visual Anthropology Lab.



Americaville, 2020, 80 minutes

Director, co-producer, and editor: Adam James Smith
Co-producers: Qi Zhang, Wang Qihan, Wei Guang, Song Ke, Tang Yi
Music: Rob Scales

Funding: The Whickers, Asian Cinema Fund, Bruckmann Trust, Bailyn Fund, Morrow Fund
Accommodation sponsors: Orenda, Shangri-La Beijing
Fiscal sponsorship: International Documentary Association

Film website: www.americavillefilm.com
Filmmaker’s website: www.adamjamessmithfilm.com

Filmmaker’s email: adam.smith.documentarian@gmail.com

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/316307011
Sample sequence: https://vimeo.com/351477767



Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies

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