SUN OCT 19, 2025 6:30 PM BITTER MONEY $10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission) Ticket prices include a $2.00 online booking fee. Los Feliz 3 | Q&A with filmmaker Wang Bing. Moderated by Ryan Swen. Join filmmaker Wang Bing in-person for his monumental 9-hour TIE XI QU: WEST OF THE TRACKS screening at Alula Film Festival on Sat. Oct 18 at The Culver Theater! Checking Event Status... *This is an RSVP which means first come first served. This RSVP does not guarantee a seat. Not a Member? Join Today. Already a Member? Be sure you are logged in to your account. Your RSVP is being held for 1 minute, please select the quantity and fill out your contact info to complete the RSVP First Name Last Name Email Quantity Subscribe to our newsletter FINISH
ABOUT THE FILM: In Mandarin with English subtitles. The city of Huzhou, where the film is shot, is home to 18,000 clothing factories. They are staffed by about 300,000 workers, many of them migrants from rural areas in the surrounding provinces. BITTER MONEY follows a handful of these workers, both at work where they may labor for more than 12 hours a day and in their off-hours, as they hang around shabby dorms drinking, dreaming of home, worrying about getting paid and trying to decide whether their jobs are worth keeping. Wang Bing brings his signature approach to the subject, never offering an overt condemnation of a system that promises a better life to rural youth, but entraps them in a grindingly dull existence. The camera watches carefully, lingering on shots, moving from one conversation to another. More powerful than any commentary, this technique captures the contours of the characters’ lives, trapped as they are in abusive relationships, oppressive jobs and dispiriting surroundings. FORMAT: DCP DISTRIBUTOR: Icarus Films COUNTRY: China