Alula Film Festival

Alula Film Festival Since its creation in 2011, DCCFF finds its roots in connecting cultures through cinema that highlights both artistic creativity and independent thinking.

ALULA Film Festival (AFF) dedicated to independent, arthouse, and auteur-driven films, we celebrates the full spectrum of Chinese-language expressions, offering audiences layered, intimate perspectives that reach beyond the familiar. We are determined to provide a global platform for filmmakers of Chinese heritage and films about China or the Chinese diaspora. The film festival is held every other

year in Washington, D.C. with the 4th run in fall of 2018. We host retrospectives of classic Chinese cinema in off years. Please look out for more details about this September's Retrospective!

04/10/2026

We found this amazing interview with Jeffrey Lau, originally made by #威哥會館, about the behind-the-scenes story connecting Ashes of Time and The Eagle Shooting Heroes, and we’ve newly added English subtitles.

The interview itself is already funny enough to watch, but what makes it even better is realizing how they somehow pulled all of this off with one of the most stacked casts in Hong Kong film history, actors and actresses recognized across Asia, all caught in the middle of one of the strangest productions imaginable.

What feels so moving about this story is that it could only have happened in the Hong Kong film industry of that era, an industry that was dense, fast, and intimate enough to pull together an absurd amount of talent on pure momentum, trust, and improvisation. There’s something raw and lovable about that world. Unlike the production stories we often hear from Hollywood, or from the industry now, where everything has to be optimized, controlled, and carefully calculated, this feels messier, more human, and somehow more alive. And yet the result was extraordinary: throw a group of geniuses together, let them scramble, improvise, and blow off steam, and out comes one of the great comedies in Chinese cinema. That’s kind of miraculous.

4/19 5PM
Double Feature of Ashes of Time + The Eagle Shooting Heroes

TICKET 🎟️: https://web.theculvertheater.com/films/AlulaFF-Ashes-of-Time-ReduxEagle-Shooting-Heroes/HO00000642

04/09/2026

THE EAGLE SHOOTING HEROES is pure mo lei tau無厘頭 chaos: an anything-goes, nonsense-driven comedy with an all-star cast and the energy of a feature-length Saturday Night Live parody show. , , , , , , , , , and are all here in full comic overdrive, with Jeffrey Lau directing and Wong Kar-wai producing.

The Chinese title is part of the fun. In English, The Eagle Shooting Heroes and Ashes of Time sound unrelated. In Chinese, though, 《東成西就》 playfully echoes 《東邪西毒》, so the connection lands immediately in a way the English titles lose.

Unlike Ashes of Time, this one actually takes its Chinese title from Jin Yong’s novel, though it’s less an adaptation than a full-on parody: broad, b***y, slapstick, and gleefully irreverent. Made quickly and cheaply while Ashes of Time spiraled into a more tortured production, it carries a real sense of release, like a cast of Hong Kong legends blowing off steam together. And while Ashes became the canonical art film, The Eagle Shooting Heroes was the much bigger commercial hit.

A rare chance to see these two films together on the big screen.
Sunday, April 19 at 5:00 PM
The Culver Theater
Ticket：https://web.theculvertheater.com/films/AlulaFF-Ashes-of-Time-ReduxEagle-Shooting-Heroes/HO00000642

04/06/2026

We found a wonderful old video from Wong Kar-wai made when Ashes of Time and The Eagle Shooting Heroes were re-released in Taiwan. He suggested Ashes of Time for those in love, and The Eagle Shooting Heroes for those recovering from heartbreak.

Fortunately, our 4/19 double feature is committed to emotional completeness.

After reading Jin Yong, Wong developed Ashes of Time as a new story built around the younger versions of Huang Yaoshi and Ouyang Feng. As he put it, he chose them because they are “two completely opposite extremes.” He wanted to pull the film away from the traditional wuxia mode and not treat its characters as heroes, but as ordinary people, tracing the part of their lives before they became legends.

The production story has become part of Hong Kong cinema lore: as Wong’s shoot slowed under distributor pressure, Jeffrey Lau was brought in to make The Eagle Shooting Heroes at high speed to fill the release slot. The same cast moved from the melancholy, compressed world of Ashes of Time straight into the comic chaos of The Eagle Shooting Heroes, and somehow both films became classics. Seen together, they let you feel that whiplash for yourself.

ASHES OF TIME REDUX + THE EAGLE SHOOTING HEROES
Saturday, 4/19 at 5 PM


TICKET 🎟️: https://web.theculvertheater.com/films/AlulaFF-Ashes-of-Time-ReduxEagle-Shooting-Heroes/HO00000642

#金庸 #射雕英雄傳

For many, April 1st stopped being just a fool's day since 2003. In tribute to the beloved legendary , our April double ...
04/02/2026

For many, April 1st stopped being just a fool's day since 2003. In tribute to the beloved legendary , our April double feature is Ashes of Time Redux / The Eagle Shooting Heroes.

Made at nearly the same moment from the same Jin Yong source material, ASHES OF TIME and THE EAGLE SHOOTING HEROES are one of the great odd couples in Hong Kong cinema. When Ashes of Time went over budget and couldn’t be finished in time for the Lunar New Year window, Wong Kar-wai had Jeffrey Lau turn many of the same stars, costumes, and locations into a fast commercial substitute. Out of that production chaos came two completely different films: one dreamy, fractured, and melancholy; the other gloriously stupid, hyperactive, and totally unhinged.

This is a rare chance to see these two films back to back on the big screen and experience one of the strangest and most legendary production stories in Hong Kong cinema history.

📍 The Culver Theater
🗓 Saturday, April 19
🕔 5:00 PM
TICKET 🎟️: https://web.theculvertheater.com/films/AlulaFF-Ashes-of-Time-ReduxEagle-Shooting-Heroes/HO00000642

After careful consideration, we’ve decided to go in a new direction with our programming strategy. In the interest of at...
04/01/2026

After careful consideration, we’ve decided to go in a new direction with our programming strategy. In the interest of attracting the largest audience possible, our future screenings will now consist entirely of contemporary Chinese blockbusters.

No more austere masterpieces, no more difficult films, no more long takes, and absolutely no more emotional suffering in rural villages. Just pure box office gold!

We kick off in April with a Nezha/Nezha 2 double feature!

Swipe to see the rest of our lineup!

Thanks to everyone who came out today!! We've been amazed by the number of families who brought their parents to relive ...
03/30/2026

Thanks to everyone who came out today!! We've been amazed by the number of families who brought their parents to relive the classics! It's heartwarming to see senior immigrants rediscovering the joy of cinema!

Thanks Michael Berry for the amazing talk with Xie Fei!

See you in April!

See you all on Sunday!!!
03/23/2026

See you all on Sunday!!!

03/23/2026

Ahead of our March 29 screening of Women from the Lake of Scented Souls (Woman Sesame Oil Maker), we’re sharing a short excerpt from Jerry Carlson and Gina Marchetti’s City Cinematheque discussion of Xie Fei’s film. Gina also wrote about the film in her book From Tian’anmen to Times Square.

Watch the clip we posted for some context before the screening without spoilers, then check out the full conversation after you’ve seen the film.

Our screening features the new 4K restoration, which we believe is the first time this version has been shown outside China, with subtitles specially prepared for this event.

📅 Sunday, March 29
🕔 5:00 PM
📍 The Culver Theater
🎤 Virtual Q&A with Xie Fei

03/19/2026

“A meticulously lensed, multilayered drama.” — Variety

Jonathan Rosenbaum praised the film’s pointed drama and Xie Fei’s sensitive direction. See The Women From The Lake Of Scented Souls （WOMAN SESAME OIL MAKER）on 3/29 at 5 PM at The Culver Theater. One of the great overlooked films of 1990s Chinese cinema.

Before China’s market reforms, women’s equality was at least officially presented as a socialist ideal. By the reform er...
03/17/2026

Before China’s market reforms, women’s equality was at least officially presented as a socialist ideal. By the reform era, that promise had started to break down, and Xie Fei’s WOMAN SESAME OIL MAKER shows the cost with painful clarity. Set in a rural village changed by new money and old social rules, the film follows a woman who becomes financially successful but is still trapped by the patriarchal world around her. Xie Fei shows that capitalism does not simply bring freedom. It settles into a society that is already unequal. He also gives real weight to the complexity of humanity, showing weakness, kindness, compromise, and the instinct to survive. Few filmmakers have shown so powerfully how political change becomes part of everyday life.

3/29 at 5 PM . Come watch this overlooked masterpiece with us. Tickets in boi!

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Since its creation in 2011, DCCFF finds its roots in connecting cultures through cinema that highlights both artistic creativity and independent thinking. We are determined to provide a global platform for filmmakers of Chinese heritage and films about China or the Chinese diaspora. The film festival is held every other year in Washington, D.C. with the 4th run in from September 27-30 of 2018 with a focus of “Folding World” which will with a focus on telling the stories of underrepresented communities and the living status of Chinese diasporas around the world.