Monday, August 31, 2026 at 8:00 PM to 10:30 PM
2220 Arts + Archives, Los Angeles
Acropolis Cinema presents *The Periphery of the Base + The Rib of the Greater Bay Area*, two films by director Zhou Tou. Co-presented by Alula. ~ *The Periphery of the Base* (Dir. Zhou Tao, 2024, 53 min) In the scorching heat of the desert, where the ground is blistering and the air thick with pervasive sand, an infrastructure project unfolds in the unforgiving natural environment. The scale of this endeavour is so immense that the individuals navigating through it appear minuscule in comparison. Within the haze of sand and dust, those who have relocated for the construction of the infrastructure, returning from a day’s toil, find their way back to the tented area hastily assembled. As the roaming lens of the camera moves through the living area and returns to the expansive terrain where this massive engineering project is unfolding, the sun begins to set. Trucks and figures gradually disappear into the swirling winds and sand. At this moment, the camera’s eye, constantly worn down by the persistent dust, suddenly loses its usual ability to discern light and shadow. Nevertheless, it persists in its attempt to capture, to the point where it seizes the abstract interplay of light and shadow in this world. The light itself becomes akin to etched marks on the virtual canvas of digital imagery, leaving behind traces and lingering impressions. (Berlinale) ~ *The Rib of the Greater Bay Area* (Dir. Zhou Tao, 2026, 70 min) Over nearly two decades, China’s Zhou Tao has earned a venerated position as one of the most unique and surprising moving-image artists of his generation. One constant across Zhou’s practice is his ability to deploy basic filmic devices like composition, depth, and camera movement to play with perspective in ways that are not only visually dazzling but subtly political. Here, the artist recasts photogenic coastal locations from the Guangdong/Hong Kong/Macau Greater Bay Area famed for their social media virality by privileging the candid, the hazy, and the abstract over crisp poses engineered for likes. Constantly shapeshifting, with its scroll-like camera movements accented by a mix of on-site and sourced sound, *The Rib of the Greater Bay Area* is another transfixing entry in Zhou’s rich body of work. (MoMA) TRT: 123 min