China's New Documentary Movement
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- DirectorWang BingDocuments a workday at a remote Chinese oil field, from a stolen nap in a break room to the massive drills plunging into the earth.
- DirectorWang BingAn insight look to the coal industry in China, the conditions under the workers must their job and the risks that they are constantly exposed. In the coal route that goes from the mines of Shanxi to the great harbor in Jianjin, the drivers of the trucks goes up and down this road day and night.
- DirectorYing Li
- DirectorWang BingStarsFengming HeFengming looks back at over 30 years of her life...
- DirectorAyisha AbrahamChantal AkermanWang BingStarsShyam BahadurJurandyr FerreiraSakda KaewbuadeeSix directors, six independent films, six visions on the state of the world. Each carrying a unique and personal interpretation of a specific experience, their crossover creates new space for a dynamic and radical inquisitive reflection.
- DirectorWeijun ChenStarsCheng ChengLuo LeiXu XiaofeiDemocracy in China exists, that is, in a primary school in Wuhan where a grade 3 class can vote who they want as class monitor.
- DirectorWang BingThe impact of the decline of heavy industry on workers and their families in the Tiexi district of Shenyang, China, at the turn of the 21st century, documented unflinchingly by a fly-on-the-wall camera.
- DirectorWeijun ChenStarsShenyi MaMei LeiNingning MaA portrait of a Chinese family living with and dying of HIV/AIDS.
- DirectorYing Ning
- DirectorWenguang Wu
- DirectorHua Zhong
- DirectorWenguang WuA documentary of the Yuanda Song and Dance Tent Show, a wandering troupe from the countryside of Henan Province that is on the road all four seasons of the year.
- DirectorLiang ZhaoStarsZhang WeiyeXiao YuanIt is a fantastic documentary about Chinese govt's systemic oppression and persecution toward ordinary folk who petition the government.
- DirectorYan FengBINGAI features one woman farmer who refuses to move away from her village. The audience will follow her seven-year struggle with officials who pressure her to relocate, while a strong devotion to her land compels her to remain in the place she calls home.
- DirectorJie HuStarsJingyao WangPioneering filmmaker Hu Jie uncovers the tragic story of a teacher beaten to death by her students during the Cultural Revoution. In 1966, the Cultural Revolution exploded throughout China, as Mao's Red Guards persecuted suspected Rightists. Bian Zhongyun, the vice principal of a prestigious school in Beijing, was beaten to death by her own students, becoming one of the first victims of the revolutionary violence that would engulf the entire nation.
- DirectorWenguang WuStarsWenguang WuZhang YuanWang ZhutianThis documentary shows how different young people try to realize their dreams or become famous through the film industry. One of the main characters of this documentary is named Wang, a young man from the countryside, aged 28. He comes to Beijing out of a love for cinema; however, all he can do every day is line up outside the gate of a film studio in hope of landing a job as an extra, getting 30RMB for one day! During his stay in Beijing he writes a film script based on his own experience in Beijing as an extra. He thinks his play presents the darkness and desperation of survival in China. Then he wants to find an investor or a director who can produce his play as an "underground film", because in his opinion many Chinese directors are successful on the international stage through this way. In the process of searching he meets some directors and producers (including some underground film people), some famous some not, and also some businessmen, people from the film censorship authority as well as some students from the cinema institute. In fact in Beijing his life is very hard - with no money, or a stable place to sleep. In the summer he has to sleep on the roof of a school dormitory. Finally Wang fails to realize his dream, and he will never see his film made. Another character is also a young man from the countryside. His name is Xiao Wu, 19 years old. His love of cinema is shown in his chosen occupation of selling pirated DVDs, some of which are quite famous foreign films, for example some award-winners from the Berlin, Venice, and Cannes Film Festival. Everyday he puts all his DVDs into a bag and goes out on his bike to find his frequent customers, young people or students who are film buffs or involved in filmmaking. Apart from these two characters, this documentary also features young girls who dream of becoming movie stars. We learn of their love of film and their ideas about life as they audition for a role. "Throughout this process not only am I the maker of this documentary, but also a person who is puzzled about why we make films. Of course I also appear in this documentary, and never hide my bewilderment, or the conflicts between my characters and me. For example, Wang assails me that I use his miserable story for my own reputation." (Wu Wenguang)
- DirectorWang BingMan with No Name is an intimate portrait of an anonymous man living in a deserted wasteland in an unnamed part of China. He lives in an underground cave, in a harsh and otherworldly landscape that seems to be entirely cut off from civilization.
- DirectorWang BingThree young sisters live and work in extreme poverty in the harsh environment of Yunnan, a province on the Sino Burmese border area of China.
- DirectorTian-yi Yang
- DirectorWeikai HuangFootage collected from a dozen amateur videographers woven into a unique city symphony of social dysfunction.
- DirectorHaibin DuThe "Great Sichuan Earthquake" took place at 14:28 on May 12, 2008. 10 days after: Scenes not seen on official/TV, "survival" is the keyword. Ordinary people are salvaging destroyed pig farms in the mountains, recuperating cents-worth scrapped metals, or pillaging victims' homes. Behind the highly-mediatized official visits, inconsolable grief of families searching for loved ones. Throughout, a vagabond in tattered clothes wanders among the ruins, observing tragic scenes. A monk and a Taoist visionary suggest: "the earthquake is the consequence of Earth-Gods no longer worshipped." 210 days after: Harsh winter, villagers preparing for Lunar New Year, the vagabond and family are detailing grievances about the ill-handling of rebuilding schemes and relief funds. Gearing up for a high official's visit, comes a thorough clean-up of the villages and tent-resettlement for refugees. Promise made for all to live in houses in winter seems tough to keep. Fake parts in the community transformer brought electricity blackout for New Year's Eve reunion dinners. New Year Day starts as never-ending parade of tourists buying DVDs of the most horrific scenes, souvenir albums of corpses being pulled out of the ruins, and photos taken in front of Beichuan, the town most severely hit, where over 70,000 people perished in seconds.
- DirectorLiang YingStarsXigui ChenGang DengHuibin LiuWorking as a secretary for a legal office, Xiaofen records clients detailing the sordid aspects of their lives: divorce cases, medical malpractice suits, financial corruption and old-fashioned personal revenge. Xiaofen starts to question her own relationship with her boyfriend (Deng Gang), fresh out of prison and looking to get into trouble again with his gambling habit. While Xiaofen deals with the overwhelming social malaise surrounding her, rumors spread of a disaster at the local chemical plant, threatening to poison the entire city.
- DirectorLiang YingStarsXiaopei LiuJie WangYun XuA 17 year old boy from a village in the Sechuan province leaves for the big city looking for his father, who left 6 years before and has not been heard of since. The fact that his mother still receives money his father does nothing to tame his anger. He his not looking for a warm reunion, it is unconcealed revenge that drives him. Totally lost, he roams the big city with his basket of ducks on his back...
- DirectorYi JianSUPER, GIRLS! follows ten female teenagers on their quest to become instant superstars on China's biggest television show. The Chinese equivalent of "American Idol," the "Super Girls Singing Contest" spawned an unprecedented pop culture phenomenon. Drawing over 400 million viewers, the show's runaway popularity spurred the Chinese government to ban it after only two seasons.
- DirectorYi JianMeat is now central to billions of people's daily meals. The environmental, climate, public health, ethical, and human impacts are enormous and remain largely unexplored. 'What's for Dinner?' explores this terrain in fast-globalizing China through the eyes of a retired pig farmer in rural Jiangxi province; a vegan restaurateur in Beijing; a bullish young livestock entrepreneur; and residents of the province known as the 'world's factory' contending with water polluted by wastes from pig factory farms.They personalize the vast trends around them, in a country on the cusp of becoming a world power. Given that every fifth person in the world is Chinese, what the Chinese eat and how China produces its food, affects not only China, but the world, too.
- DirectorJiayin LiuStarsHuifen JiaJiayin LiuZaiping LiuDaily life in an impossibly cramped Beijing apartment takes on epic proportions in this, intimate portrait, with unprecedented access, of a working-class Chinese family.
- DirectorJiayin LiuStarsHuifen JiaJiayin LiuZaiping LiuThe director shows herself and her parents making dumplings in their apartment with nine fixed camera positions, with which she revolves around the kitchen table.
- DirectorWang Bing
- DirectorWeijun ChenStarsZhenxiang WangChao WanPan WangIn ancient times in China, education was the only way out of poverty. In recent times it has been the best way. China's economic boom and talk of the merits of hard work have created an expectation that to study is to escape poverty. But these days, China's higher education system only leads to jobs for a few, educating a new generation to unemployment and despair.
- 'Law of the Dragon' takes a fresh look at a vast and culturally rich China, examining how justice is served in rural areas so remote and isolated that the villagers have almost no contact with, and are deeply mistrustful of, the central government. Principally following the austere Judge Chen as he travels around the rural and sparsely populated Xuan-en province, resolving the grievances of the residents and dispensing nuggets of Confucian-Communist wisdom.
- DirectorWeijun ChenWest Lake Restaurant in South China's Changsha can safely call itself the biggest Chinese restaurant in the world, with its staff of 1,000 working 5,000 tables and serving no fewer than 150 ducks per day and 200 snakes per week. The words of the restaurant's staff and guests are used in the film to paint a picture of modern China: the proprietress, one of the city's 20 self-made millionaires, speaks candidly about her failed marriage; a bridegroom-to-be who is celebrating at the restaurant explains the modern Chinese customs associated with the wedding party; and a waitress visits her poor parents in the countryside. Through these scenes, we gain insight into the unique combination of the ancient religious values and the new capitalist values with which China is stepping into the 21st century. What becomes very clear is that not everyone is set to benefit from the economic boom. In an approach comparable to Jia Zhang-ke's in his portrait of a theme park called "The World," by focusing on the microcosm of the West Lake Restaurant, this film manages to gain a perspective on the huge changes China is going through.
- DirectorYing LiStarsNaoharu KariyaJun'ichirô KoizumiControversy abounds as Japanese officials honor the deceased at the legendary Yasukuni shrine, where swords used to kill Chinese soldiers were famously forged. Few know about the shrine's eerie past and the mysterious sword inside.
- DirectorYing LiStarsGuangwei LiuHatsue SatoKoroku Sato
- DirectorLixin FanStarsChanghua ZhangYang ZhangSuqin ChenA couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower.
- DirectorYung ChangStarsJerry Bo Yu ChenCampbell Ping HeCindy Shui YuAt the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.