Director Jia Zhangke’s politically-charged feature A Touch of Sin // 天註定 enters the thematically similar lives of four individuals in their struggles against financial / immoral realities. Synopsis can be read as follows (via Cannes Film Festival 2013): “An angry miner revolts against the corruption of his village leaders.   A migrant worker at home for the New Year discovers the infinite possibilities a firearm can offer.   A pretty receptionist at a sauna is pushed to the limit when a rich client assaults her.   A young factory worker goes from job to job trying to improve his lot in life.   Four people, four different provinces. A reflection on contemporary China: that of an economic giant slowly being eroded by violence.” Watch the full length trailer down at the bottom of this page. --- [embed width="640"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUkFnXd0qHo[/embed] Trailer for A TOUCH OF SIN // 天註定. A Touch of Sin // 天註定, 2013 --- Jia Zhangke

Most of our faithful fans know that we here at EK do what we do simply for the love of Art. And if you don't know, now you know. We originally started our site to share our love of Art with the world, but it grew quickly from a fun side project to an intense, all-consuming labor of love, and now, we have been blessed with this beautiful baby whose life it is our job to nurture and grow in a positive, impactful way. Our dream is to be a 90/10 company, meaning we donate 90% of our company's net income and keep only 10%. Take a moment to think about how retardedly difficult that sounds. There isn't a businessman in the world who'd invest in a business plan like that. "Yes, 'Sir Moneybags', we plan on taking your money...making more money...and then giving away most of it to causes that benefit Art and our community. Hello? -Hello? Ummm, he must have hung up..." We love Art, but do not want to evolve into some giant cog in the Art-world machine. We have dreams to change the world with Art, to educate, and inspire people on every part of the globe. Our dream is to grow our company to the point where someday we can throw down the gauntlet to all other successful businesses (not just Art), and force them to not just consider philanthropy as a part of doing business, but an integral part of the business model. But to be perfectly clear, we are still far, far away from this. We are at the bottom of the mountain, looking up together. Up to now, we've actually supported this site out of our own pockets...everything from the cost of hosting, to the redesign, and all the events and programs we've worked on so far.  While we do this with no complaints, we have definitely reached a tipping point. We are all artists ourselves, and like loving parents of a growing child, we unfortunately do not have all the time in the world to do everything we want. Increasingly, we find ourselves spending time developing this site as opposed to creating our own art, which has been a rewarding challenge, but a challenge, nonetheless. Now, we need your help you lovely people to keep this ship sailing in the right direction! We are asking for a donation of any amount to support the cause. Your money will strictly go towards helping us cover our increased hosting and server costs because this shit is getting expensive! We're at the point where we won't be able to fund this project on our own, so we need your help. In case you haven't noticed, there's been a number of times when our site has gone down temporarily. This is because our servers have been overloaded, and the jump to the next level of hosting we need to keep up with all you dope fiends is simply too expensive for a bunch of starving artists to afford. So our desire to support the site has put us at a crossroad. Instead of selling a stake of our company out to the "Man" for investment money to keep our ship upright (which means we lose our 100% control and have no guarantee of the long-term direction of our future), we want to do it our way because our way is for the love of art and humanity...created by the people and for the people. We have grown quicker than we ever imagined we would, and now have volunteers working with us from cities all over the world, and more are arriving to our shores. They all come for the same reason that you do. Great art. Great artists. Great, well curated content. Art is our addiction. That's how the site started, it feeds our souls, and defines our existence in many ways. So if you care enough, then please click on the button below, and spread the good word! Thanks, we love you always... EMPTY KINGDOM

Intriguing music video Magma by The Vein paints an abstract geological terrain filled with swirling floods of color and smoothly embedded facial landscapes. Constructed and envisioned by Dvein (previously mentioned on EK here). A little more info about the studio can be read as follows: “Dvein is a collaborative project by the directors Fernando Domínguez, Teo Guillem and Carlos Pardo providing direction and art direction for live action and animation.   Since 2007 we have been working for international clients, such as Diesel, Canal+, MTV, National Geographic and Nokia, among others. We like to think of us as an open-minded studio always up to be involved in the whole creative process of the proposals that we take part of.   Besides our commercial activity, Dvein is conceived as a platform based on experimentation. We try to redefine the way of focusing the objectives of every particular project. We are not afraid of thinking outside the box- as we were not afraid in the past of melting a plastic toy helicopter, directing ants and snails, or building a miniature music festival.   Our work has been shown in many events and festivals like TOCA ME in Munich, Playgrounds in Amsterdam, F5 in New York, ArtFutura in Buenos Aires and OFFF in Paris, and in some of them we had the opportunity to collaborate as speakers also, as well as in different schools and universities.” Jump down below to view the completed MV and it’s Making-of segment. --- [embed width="640"]https://vimeo.com/64542506[/embed] Music video for MAGMA. [embed width="640"]https://vimeo.com/65546038[/embed] The making of MAGMA. Magma, 2013 --- The Vein Dvein