Weekends
2019 · 15m
An old Beijing Opera performer who moves to the U.S. forgets his lines on the stage which causes him considerable distress. A female protege of his takes him for a walk on the beach along with her dog and her half-Chinese son. A string of dream-like memories of his old days are triggered by this walk, and he is gripped by a wave of nostalgia as the singing of Beijing Opera comes on in the background, making the boundary between reality and fantasy all the more blurry. The sea glitters in the setting sun and seabirds sing above the sea, the beautiful scene which awakes him from his trance...
More Like This
A Yangtze Landscape
2017 · ★ 5.3
A Yangtze Landscape utilizes a non-narrative style, setting off from the Yangtze's marine port Shanghai, filming all the way to the Yangtze River's source, Qinghai/Tibet - filming a total distance of thousands of kilometers. Experimental music and noise recorded live on scene are used in post-production, painstakingly paired with relatively independent visuals, creating a magically realistic atmosphere contrasted with people seeming to be 'decorative figures' right out of traditional Chinese landscape scrolls.
More info →
Rumination
2009
An exploration of the Cultural Revolution that depicts both its chaotic later years – through the story of a squad of Red Army guards running amok in the countryside – and its continuing legacy in today’s China.
More info →
New Castle
2010
New Castle is a remote rural village where houses and mountains have been distorted due to excessive mining. Under the "New Village" campaign, all the villagers will be moved into the nearly completed Luxury Buildings. The documentary depicts the life of two groups of people, miners and villagers. The miners who are from all over the country, lost their jobs because of the Olympic Games in Beijing - the mine was shut down to make the air less polluted. The villagers had no better luck. Granny Fan lost two sons and two grandsons in a mining accident. Old Han and Old Wang are still farming. Some youngsters are gambling in the house of Han Bin, who was crippled in another mining accident. In the film, you can also see the village election, the service of local Christians, and people worshipping for a better year to come.
More info →
A Clear Sky
2012
Xilin Gol grassland in Inner-Mongolia is one of few natural grasslands with high-quality pasture in China. When a rich coalfield is discovered under the ground of this beautifully natural scene, the nomadic herdsmen reluctantly migrate into the cities and wave farewell to their grassland. The water levels lower, plants die, and only sandstorms remain on the prairie.
More info →
Born Wasted
2017 · ★ 10
The frustrated painter decided to burn his failed paintings. Unexpectedly, when the paintings burned down, they turned into paper cranes and returned to his memory. As memories shuttled, the painter wanted to recover the waste paper again, but it was too late.
More info →
Xi Hai City
2007
"Xi Hai City" of male leading role is a looming demolition in the villages of the youth of the world confusion about the future, he wandered around every corner, in the village from the lock the door when you leave, to go to the toilet, to meet others, to buy breakfast, until get to the sea met a woman finally clashed with her and tried to a relationship, finally dull left, alone quietly walked into the sea.
More info →
The Silent Voyage
2003
A Jian, Zhang Chiand Gou Zi took the train from Beijing to Tongliao. They made a promise that no one could speak during the trip, and who broke the rules should be punished. But it's still necessary to pick up some phone call, ask the way after you get off the train...For educated decadents, life is as if always in a state of intoxication, without goal or objective.
More info →
Rodents' Body Exploration
2020
The artist works around the different individual experiences which consolidates the different changes in the body while examines intimate relationships under the structure of the disease, all by making her experience visible and public. Within the realms of Ruijing’s discussions, she hopes for the work to push the boundaries of the marginality of the body, for the work to allow oneself to look at their and others’ body in an objective manner that escapes the ontological. She further wished for the experience of living and the reflection on the mass would help the discovery of the self and its connection with society, while reflecting on life itself by doing so.
More info →
Shattered
2011 · ★ 8.6
A microcosm of China past and present flows through Xu Tong’s intimate docu “Shattered,” in which the maverick indie filmmaker continues to refine his techniques and concerns shown in his previous “Wheat Harvest” and “Fortune Teller.”
More info →
A Monologue About Home
2022
After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, I reached out for a Ukrainian who studies in Beijing. Born in Russia, his father was Russian and his mother is Ukrainian. As the war escalates, his hometown was also bombarded, and his family breaks apart while his mom seeks for asylum in Bulgaria and his stepdad staying at home. He is about to leave China, feeling lost about his next destination. Gradually Mark and I have more resonance. And the pain caused by war started to strike me too.
More info →
Guranay
2021
This film is a realistic record of a sixty-year-old couple living in a remote village (Gurenay) in the Badain Jaran Desert of Alashan, Inner Mongolia plant thousands of mu of ammodendron and euphratica to fight against expanding deserts.
More info →
Little Feet
2006
Xiayao Village, Youyu County, Shanxi ProvinceThe 7-year-old and big-footed Bai Nu and Liu Buhan, both of whom died because of their loved ones, were brought together with their three children more than 40 years ago. (Bai Danu 2 Men 1 Women) (Liu Buhan 3 (Daughter) Nowadays, the children have become grandparents, and most of them are not next to Bai Bainu and Liu Buhan. The children of both sides have differences over the old age of raising the two elderly people ... so despite the two They are all in their eighties, and still need to get up and return to the field to farm in the morning and night, and the old lady Bai is more because of her little feet, she has to stagger in the wind and rain, kneeling in the fields ... A foot-binding old lady faces the camera and talks to her little feet ...
More info →