There’s a screening of The Rising Tide in Santa Monica tonight at the USC US-China Institute which simply provides us the occasion to link to the film’s trailer (click on the image above) and a description at the US-China Institute’s side.

Robert Adanto’s The Rising Tide, which recently screened at The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and Miami Beach Art Basel, examines China’s economic and cultural metamorphosis through the work of some of the Middle Kingdom’s most talented video artists and photographers, including the internationally recognized Cao Fei, Xu Zhen, Wang Qingsong, Chen Qiulin, O Zhang, Yang Yong, and Birdhead. It is narrated by Rosalind Chao and Gordon Chang, the author of The Coming Collapse of China.

The Rising Tide is an incredibly timely examination of China’s growing prominence in international culture. In a climate of globalization and rapid urbanization, Chinese Contemporary Art has emerged as arguably the most vital and imaginative cultural force in the world today. “The rest of us better make an effort to grasp what their work is about, or get out of the way,” says Mark Lynch, host of WICN’s Inquiry, ” [The Rising Tide is] an ‘eye-opener’ in every sense of the word, if you are an artist, curator or art teacher be sure to catch this film.” “Adanto’s surprisingly grim film highlights both the vitality and urgency of China’s burgeoning new culture while allowing its subjects to speak of the darker and more painful aspects of change,” says Gerry Mak in the on-line publication Flavorpill.

(An embedded trailer from You Tube appears after the jump.)

The Rising Tide (USC US-China Institute)