Season 2: The Making of Cultures
The art of regret
In China photography is sometimes known as ‘the art of regret’...regret for what might be and for what is lost.
Yellow Earth 黄土地
In 1939, Gu Qing, a propaganda cadre in the Eighth Route Army, comes to a poor village on the Yellow Earth Plateau to collect folk songs. There he meets Cui Qiao, a young girl due to enter an arranged marriage. Gu’s tales of an equal Communist society inspire Cui, who asks him to take her to Yan’an to join the army. Gu promises to return to fetch her after getting permission from the Army.
The Gate of Heavenly Peace 天安门
A three-hour documentary film about the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square that culminated in the violent government massacre on 3-4 June, The Gate of Heavenly Peace interweaves archival footage and contemporary interviews to examine how the protest movement was shaped by the complex political history of China’s twentieth century.
Sunless Days 沒有太陽的日子
Unwilling to make the sort of news reportage that was being continuously aired following the June 4 massacre, in Sunless Days, director Shu Kei turns to his family and friends, producing a very personal document of what the Tiananmen Massacre means, particularly from the perspective of Hong Kong, with the 1997 handover looming.
Eat Drink Man Woman 飲食男女
Every Sunday, widowed master chef Mr. Chu prepares a sumptuous banquet for his family. While he has a firm grasp on the fine art of Chinese cuisine, he is less successful when it comes to being a father to his three grown, unmarried daughters, each of whom challenge traditional Chinese values, and are often too busy with their own lives to appreciate their father’s gastronomical expressions of love.
Khangai Herds
Khangai Herds is an observational film about the coexistence of two herding families and the herd animals living amongst them in the Khangai mountains of Mongolia. The herds consist of horses, cattle (including yak), and a combination of sheep and goats. In a land of extreme conditions, both herder and herd animal depend upon one another as a means of survival.
A Screening Journey 放电影
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.
Wild Rose 野玫瑰
Wild Rose (1932) is one of the earliest leftist films made in Shanghai, starring Wang Renmei and Jin Yan, two prominant actors active in Shanghai cinema of the 1930s. Wang Renmei plays a country girl Xiao Feng, nicknamed 'Wild Rose' for her beauty, health and vigor. Her co-star, Jin Yan, plays a wealthy painter, Jiang Bo.
Morning Sun 八九点钟的太阳
Morning Sun attempts in the space of a two-hour documentary film to create an inner history of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (c.1964-1978).
