We are delighted to announce that CIFA and Jenny Man Wu, an independent artist and curator based in China, have been awarded a British Council 2025/26 Connections Through Culture grant for the project titled The Soft Archive: Performing Women’s Unseen Labour in Independent Chinese Cinema. CIFA will serve as the UK partner and support Wu to deliver this project by 30 November 2026.
The project builds a performative archive that honours women’s often invisible contributions to China’s independent film scene. Drawing on oral histories and archival materials, the project highlights the uncredited labour of partners, curators, and volunteers whose efforts have sustained this cultural landscape. Through post-verbatim theatre co-created with UK artists, these stories will be reimagined as embodied memories, bringing overlooked voices into public spaces and challenging dominant cultural histories.