A new wave of Montreal-based visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers is channeling the aesthetic grit and anti-establishment ethos of directors like Wang Bing, Zhao Liang, and Ying Liang. This isn’t about mimicking. It’s about resonance. “There’s a rawness, a reality, a resistance,” says local multimedia artist Ava Zhao, whose recent exhibit “The Borderless Frame” draws direct inspiration from banned Chinese documentaries.
According to film sites, the parallels between Montreal’s own legacy of protest and the dissident energy of Chinese indie filmmakers have sparked genuine creative kinship. DIY screening clubs, analog cam aesthetics, subtitled projections in alleyways—it’s less homage and more mutation.
One standout is New Currents, a monthly screening-meets-performance night held in Mile End basements and Chinatown galleries. Here, restored underground Chinese films are paired with live scoring and experimental dance. Think Petition meets punk rave.
“Censorship is a universal language,” says video artist Hugo Li. “What these films show us is how beauty and rebellion can co-exist in harsh systems.”
Montreal’s scene is doing more than watching—it’s translating. These underground stories from the Chinese mainland are becoming raw material for new narratives that confront identity, surveillance, and diaspora dislocation.
For readers new to this space, RADII has long explored the intersections of Chinese independent film and creative resistance. And what’s happening in Montreal? It’s proof that underground voices don’t just survive repression—they echo.
Cover image via Take Ninagawa.
