JMSC 0044/6041 Documentary Film

Appreciation Friday, April 11, 2008

0930-1230

Jim Laurie

Eliot Hall G-21

jlaurie@hku.hk

A few notes• Next week – a review session

• Critical final exam two weeks from today

• Will have results for you next week of your 2nd Film Critique

• Your third & final film critique is due by email no later than May 10th

Independent Chinese Filmmakers

• Review• Chinese independent documentarians• Motivated by easier & cheaper video

technology • Desire to document changes and social

trends that otherwise would be ignored• Desire to explore China’s past• Rebellion against State Television

China Filmmakers

• Documentary in Mainland China by Lin Xudong Read:  http://www.yidff.jp/docbox/26/box26-3-e.html

• China Independent Documentary Film Archive

• http://www.cidfa.com/modules/index.php

China Filmmakers• Wu Wenguang• Born 1956 Yunnan• primary school teacher turned journalist for Kumming Television.• 1991 founded production studio “Wu” • Films: Bumming in Beijing (1990) Time in the Red Guards (1993) Jiang Hu: Life on the road (2000)

China Filmmakers

• Wu Wenguang and Jian Yi

• The China Villagers Documentary Project

• See http://www.cidfa.com/modules/project.php?pid=4

Village Democracy Project

• See http://redcat.org/season/0607/fv/wu.php

• For those seeking more information on China: Village Democracy see

http://newton.uor.edu/departments&programs/AsianStudiesDept/china-rural.html

China filmmakers

• Other background readings

• More on Chen Weijun and his film Vote for Me

• See http://www.whydemocracy.net/film/3

Zhao Dayong   赵大勇

b. Liaoning

Art background

majored in painting

2002

Yunnan films

2004

Shanghai

Zhao Dayong       Street Life or Living on Nanjing Road Shanghai (2004) homeless bottle recyclers Characters (excerpt)

Readings

• MJ Graduate Sky Canaves

• Paper• canaves-masters-paper-china-film-eclectic-shadows-2007.doc

Ruby Yang

FILM: The Blood of Yingzhou District• 39 Minutes• 2006• 2007 Documentary Short Academy Award

Ruby Yang

• “My docs are made in the edit room.”

• Juxtaposition of sadness and moments of lighter relief

• Editing methods learned in feature films

• 1993 “Joy Luck Club”• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107282/fullcredits#writers

Yung Chang• Film: Up the Yangtze • http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/up-the-yangtze/index.php

www.uptheyangtze.com 

Note in watching film – the juxtaposition of the two main characters – Yu Shui (Cindy) and Chen Boyu (Jerry)

And the comic relief. Be prepared to write about this on April 25th

China Film Makers

• Hu Jie • Read:

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/05/35/hu_jie_documentaries.html

China Film Makers• Zhou Hao• Senior Year 95 min. 2005• Born in 1968. Photographer at Xinhua News Agency and

Southern Weekend. Started making films in 2001.Lives in Guangzhou.

• Filmography: Hou Street(03), Senior Year(05).

• SENIOR YEAR ： Study hard! Move ahead! Be patriotic! These slogans are drilled into the minds of Chinese boarding school students as they struggle to pass their university admission exams. With most of these teens hailing from poverty-stricken rural villages, their tuition for school is paid through the blood, sweat and tears of their parents. As such, they must literally study from day to night, waking up three hours before class to recite propagandist passages that encourage them to stay loyal to the nation. With already no personal space of their own, even the teachers intrude upon every facet of their lives. It’s a harrowing portrait of a new generation raised as if they were sheep.

China Documentaries

• Yunfest

• http://www.yunfest.org/lab/e-index-a.asp

China film makers• Ou Ning

• Artist turned filmmaker http://

www.alternativearchive.com/ouning/default.asp?cat=12

     

• Huang Wei Kai              http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Weekend/GG16Jp02.html

Transcript “Chung Kuo”• See: http://jmsc.hku.hk/blogs/docfilm08/antonioni-translation/

• See excerpt

• Also http://www.btmon.com/Video/Movies/M_Antonioni_-_Chung_Kuo_China_1972_docu.torrent.html