2016

Self-Portrait: At 47 KM

My father was born in a village called ‘47 KM’, for it is located 47 KM from Suizhou, Hubei Province. He left the village when he was twenty, but his father still lives there. In 2010, I returned to the village and reacquainted with my grandfather, met the elders who lived through the great famine fifty years ago, and rediscovered the village that had perplexed and embarrassed me.

Self-Portrait: Dying at 47 KM

This is the fifth documentary I made in ‘47 KM’ since 2011. My grandfather has passed away, and what does the village mean to me without him? I started to search for stories about death in the village: some are of unnatural causes, some are bizarre, and some are results of hatred. In the daily life accompanied by so many deaths, how should I understand death?

I Want to Be a People’s Representative

I am a peasant and I have been making documentaries for eight years. In 2012, my county People’s Congress began elections for the next term. As I always spoke for the people in my village and helped solve their problems, I believed I was eligible to be a People’s Representative and took part in the candidate elections. I recorded the process with my camera.

Revolution in Baiyun Village

In 1970, when I was nineteen, some people in my village accused others of being counter-revolutionary. It was a tragedy with over eighty people involved. Now, forty years later, most villagers don’t mention the incident and the young generation has never heard about it. As someone who was present but silent during the incident, I decided to start an investigation with my eyes wide open.

Huamulin, Boy Xiaoqiang

In the mountains of Yunnan is my home village Huamulin. Young people leave here for work; only the elderly and children stay behind. Four-year-old Xiaoqiang often accompanied me to clean up the environment and helped the elderly. He represents the future of this village and I lay much hope in him. One day, his parents took him away to work in the city, but I couldn’t stop this from happening.

Attacking Zhanggao Village

In 2010, I went back to my village and began interviewing my grandfather and other elders about the famine between 1959 and 1961. I hoped to erect a commemorative headstone for the villagers who died back then. However, the idea met strong opposition from my village and family. Even though I collected the deceased’s names and ages, I couldn’t put a headstone in the public cemetery.

Those Who Feel the Fire Burning

As a group of refugees tries to enter Europe illegally by boat, a storm suddenly appears and all hell breaks loose when an old man falls overboard. His perception shifts into a dark, hallucinatory place. Driven by a mysterious power and desperately in search of his loved ones, his soul passes by the everyday reality of many castaway refugees at the border of the alleged paradise, Europe.

Spoon

A dialogue is born in a prison between Spoon, an African American poet imprisoned for life, and me. After eight years of conversation, Spoon’s words console me, while my ear is a channel for him to the outside world. The film takes as a starting point the desire to measure the power of language, both his poetry and his activist prose, and to share notions of time.

Rio Corgo

Silva, an old drifter, arrives at a small and isolated Portuguese village where he meets the young Ana. They develop a relation in between friendship and initiation. Fascinated by this wondrous man, Ana progressively falls into his universe. But strange fits weaken Silva, bringing him to the hospital, where a dozen women start inhabiting him. Will they save him?

Kiev/Moscow. Part 1 & 2

Maidan Nezalezhnosti is Kiev’s central square. It gave its name to the massive anti-government rallies that took place in the winter of 2013-2014 and eventually toppled the regime in Ukraine. However, the joy of freedom was quickly overshadowed by the aftermath: the Russian annexation of Crimea, the bloodshed in the East, the lurking warfare led by PUTIN, and the clashes in Odessa.

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