Spittoon Celebrates Successful Literary Tour With Documentary Screening, Dec 15

As if boosting the capital’s literary scene with their quarterly publication, numerous poetry readings, writing workshops, and a multitude of spinoff events wasn't enough, the Spittoon collective also took to the road to celebrate writing, music, and the joy that is creativity, outside of Beijing in 201, including stops in Chengdu, Suzhou, and Shanghai. What’s more, those events were captured in a twenty-two minute documentary dubbed That's What Spittoon Is that will be screened at Camera Stylo on Dec 15.

Read our in-depth Q&A with the Spittoon Collective here.

Matthew Byrne, founder and director of the Spittoon literary collective, says director Hannees Knuttson-Hall's footage “feels like quite a romantic, fly-on-the-wall documentary.”

According to Knuttson-Hall, although each event has its own mood and flair, the Spittoon Poetry night stood out to the director "because that was the first event I filmed, and then there was this intense presence of silence – everyone listened with such concentration to each other’s poems.”

Byrne says it was a treat to see himself and fellow Spittoon-ers onscreen adding that it was “fascinating to size up Spittoon at the point it was filmed in this documentary, and to see how it has evolved and developed to this point. I can't wait to show more people the inner workings of our collective and hopefully encourage more people to come and get involved!”

The That’s What Spittoon Is documentary screening will be held at Camera Stylo on Saturday, Dec 15 at 8pm. There will also be poetry and music performances, and a Q&A with those involved with the doc. For more information, click here.

Craving a good read? Page One in Sanlitun just unveiled their revamped first floor.

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Photos courtesy of Spittoon