Portable Occupation

Ben Cho

Release year: 2011

Run time: 106 mins

Film type: Documentary

A Canadian film festival programmer travels to Beijing for work and pleasure. He explores tourist attractions, visits art galleries and meets filmmakers. Soon his working holiday is over and he travels to Rotterdam.

Ben Cho is known for "Colonel Panics" (2016), "Portable Occupation" (2011) and "Winter Vacation" (2010). He was invited to the Berlinale Talent Campus, 2008. He was former Film Programmer for the Brisbane International Film Festival. Ben once created a sculpture out of used pornographic VHS tapes for exhibition in the First Draft Gallery, Sydney, Australia, and worked as a journalist and interviewed Gong Li.

Film festival programmers are a rare species. The great ones discover and share cinema with passion and zeal. Whether you agree or not with their selections, you can’t ignore the films they present to you for viewing. I consider Mark Peranson to be one of the greats. It was important for me to capture the boredom, isolation, excitement and sense of discovery a programmer feels while on the road. Making this film brought constant discoveries: about Peranson, about Beijing, about programmers and about filmmaking.

Film Database

Portable Occupation