The Blind Storytellers

You Can't Squeeze Blood Out Of A Turnip

Les Blank brings us the life and work of self-taught, visual artist Butch Anthony, who hails from the small town of Seale in Southeastern Alabama. Butch is a rare individual with a unique ability to see the potential in objects that others take for granted. He is considered one of the top naïve artists in Alabama, and, as his artwork is shown in museums around the country, he is becoming a national treasure. Blank’s camera follows Butch to various folk art festivals around the South, visiting the friends and artists who inspired him to create art. Blank also observes Butch’s life in Alabama’s rural landscape. From ‘coon hunting to “calling up” alligators and digging up fossils, Butch Anthony shows us a South not known to many outsiders.

The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism

2017 · ★ 8.5

Taking its lead from French artists like Renoir and Monet, the American impressionist movement followed its own path which over a forty-year period reveals as much about America as a nation as it does about its art as a creative power-house. It’s a story closely tied to a love of gardens and a desire to preserve nature in a rapidly urbanizing nation. Travelling to studios, gardens and iconic locations throughout the United States, UK and France, this mesmerising film is a feast for the eyes. The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism features the sell-out exhibition The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920 that began at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and ended at the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Silence

1998 · ★ 6

A portrait of a family living in a village in Masuria.

When A Child Is Dreaming

2021

The old man who has no dreams, forgets the dream of the dream, said that the dream of being educated, the child who is chasing dreams in the streets, can we really have a dream? In front of the new crisis that has aroused the new crown virus, I came to Yunnan with a camera, I hope I can reactivate my movie and a few musician friends who have already realized it is facing new challenges. In Kunming City, a child of a roadside stall, every day, like a beast is usually playing in the road of the car, only six years old, he has not started to go to school, and his parents did not take care of him. . And when they said their dreams, the dream of teaching with strong people, and it is incorporated with this. The dream of spiritual medicine may not exist at all, but it is really a tragedy, and the tragedy is staged daily.

Nameless Soldiers

2017

I came to the "90 km-long traffic jam, road transport of coal (news)," the Shenmu and Fugu, Coal makes this town less than one million people among the Chinese economy in the forefront. And arrived here three days later, Pass me a tramp pointing to the front for me, "in front of you can find a dream." I gave up being shocked shoot spectacular traffic jam events. I start shooting those who rub shoulders with Seoul before, Children, adolescents, youth, middle-aged, elderly. We talked about the harsh reality of the real Titanic, We are also talking about the illusory ideals, My ideal also quietly began to grow from here.

Fish Memory and Sheep Memory

2019

A Muslim living in a non-Muslim region of China. It attempts to explore the relationship between ethnic, cultural background and survive.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Football

2017

These are conversations I had with four football partners respectively on the way to the football field，on the way back from the football field，on the way to class，on the way to the bar. The content revolves around freedom，love, meanings of life and so on, which is mainly about their views on the life situation of themselves.

Mother

2022

Following the mother of martyrs Pro-Ukraine, Qingwen who missed her lost son Guo Zhenggao and accuse the brutal of the war that takes up so many life.

ODESSA STEPS 2022

2022

This film cross-cut the "Odessa Steps" chapter from the famous war movie "Battleship Potemkin" (1925) and the actual footage of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict in 2022. It uses a 21st-century "Montage d'Attraction" to explore The circle of history, the contradictions of civilization, and the crisis of life.

The Garden

2010

The documentary "The Garden" focuses on the "old city renovation" project of BaDaHu Residential area in Qingdao. After the film was released online, the renovation project of this residential area became the only illegal demolition activity that was stopped in China in 2010. A special report by China Central Television revealed that this project was demolished and built without government approval by impostor, fictitious official letter.

At The Time

2017

In the Chinese New Year of 2017, Solar and I went together to visit David Zhang who was practicing kung fu on Wudang Mountain. As the three of us interacted, we observed and looked after each other. We also filmed each other to document and reconstruct this experience of listening to each other and growing up.

We Sit In Silence At The Memorial Table

2022

A silent film by Vietnamese director Truong Minh Quy in collaboration with Belgian director Nicolas Graux, was shot on the set of a film by Graux. We Sit in Silence at the Memorial Table is inspired by Educational Objectives, a poem written by Aleksey Garipov and translated to English by Nicolas Graux.