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-rura
 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_docu
•
China
Zhou Hao
Film Makers
• 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/oun
=12
• Huang Wei Kai
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Weekend/G
 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