In northeast Tibet, a young projectionist travels from one village to another to screen open-air films for the local villagers. Every year he has to screen a specified number of films, selected by China’s State Department. Out of a passion for films, he has been doing this job for eight years, and has established keen audiences everywhere he goes. A Chinese academic researcher, investigating such outdoor film projects in the Tibetan areas joins the screening journey to understand the social life of the projectionist. The presence of the researcher and his team inadvertently brings new visual stimuli to the local villagers, apart from the films, especially for the local children, who are fascinated by the research team’s camera equipment. In A Screening Journey, filmmaker Jinghong Zhang records the interesting interactions between the projectionist, the researcher and the local villagers. The resulting documentary explores people’s indulgence in a visual world that can, to some extent, transgress the prevailing political regime.

The film screening will be followed by a short discussion.

This film is part of the monthly film series Asia and the Pacific Screens, sponsored by the Australian Centre on China in the World.

Directed by Zhang Jinghong 張靜紅

2014, 65 minutes

In Chinese and Tibetan, with English subtitles