Chinese Documentary Festival 2008

Finalist - Feature Film

Someday

Director: Lin Hao-shen

Taiwan / 2005 / Col / DV / 60Mins
In Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles

Synopsis

One day, my Grandma moved into a nursing home, creating ripples through my Mom's life. She couldn't deal with the fact that Grandma had worked so hard for most of her life but wouldn't be able to enjoy the rest of her days. Grandma couldn't even remember the place she'd been living for over 40 years, due to Alzheimer's disease. However, Mom could do nothing but put more time and effort into taking care of her the only mother she would ever have.

Director’s note

I originally made this documentary to film my grandmother while she was alive.

This is one advantage of being a filmmaker; I can record pieces of my life to remember when they go away.

I have come to realize that making documentary films can be a sort of “double-edged sword”.

Watching this film will always make me happy because it brings back sweet memories with my grandmother, but sometimes facing sweet memories that we can never experience again can be a difficult fact to accept.

Pediatric Department

Director: Wang Hao

China / 2006 / Col / DV / 104Mins
In Mandarin with Chinese or English subtitles

Synopsis

This documentary tells what happened in the Pediatric Department in Ningguo People's hospital in Anhui province. This is the biggest and best local hospital, treating 60% of the patients of the region. The pediatric department is one of its busiest units. But after private Huatai hospital opened in Sep, 2004, the number of inpatients of this department gradually decreased, which directly affected the doctors' income. Director Chen was the core of this department, intelligent and capable and able to lead a clannish team. Being short handed, the doctors even have to work after the night shift. The doctors were exhausted, but since Chen was also overworked, they obeyed without complaint. They were only tired of being doctors. Facing fierce competition, unsound professional surroundings and inept executives, the doctors were worried and anxious, but nobody left.

Led by Chen, they began to fight a tiresome war in which there would be no winner.

Background

China's medical system has become a nightmare, and we don't know whether the situation can be improved. The government refuses to offer medical insurance to the majority of citizens; at the same time, medical budgets are being sharply reduced. As a result, hospitals have to make profits to maintain operation, and many people cannot get treated because of the high medical fees. Since hospitals are still state-owned, doctors have to cope with the bureaucracy and nonprofessional executives. On the other hand, due to the so called floating salary system, they can only get half of the basic salary from the hospital and have to earn the other half from the patients. Therefore doctors are facing an unprecedented difficult situation. The fury of society is vented on them, and is the root of increasingly violent medical conflicts. Only last year, thousands of assaults were reported in Chinese hospitals, the most serious one of which occurred in Sichuan province, where a patient blew up one of the departments with dynamite.

Director’s note

It took half a year to shoot this film. The director stayed with the doctors in the hospital every day, and shot about 100 hours of footage. Doctors trusted him and didn't conceal any behavior from him. In this way, he was able to truthfully record what happened in this department during this special period: conflicts between doctors and patients, between doctors themselves and between doctors and executives, and life vs. death battles for children, all in this relatively isolated place and in chilly contrast to the monotony of the bureaucratic system. Everybody began to show a callous indifference. And when the competition ended, nobody felt relieved, because nothing had changed.

Before studying documentary filmmaking in Beijing Film Academy, I worked as a doctor in the Emergency Room in this hospital for 3 years. I often saw patients without medical insurance and doctors with the task of making profits resort to every means, like desperate chess players who defend against each other, and strive for their own benefits. I was very much Influenced by the compelling situation under this kind of medical system.

Daring my second year in the Beijing Film Academy, I came back to the hospital with a DV camera, hoping to shoot my former colleagues. I decided on the Pediatric Department, because this is the only department where patients have no voice. Their rights and interests are completely in the hands of others. I saw a vivid contrast between the fragility of human life and hardness and absurdness of reality.

I shot for about half a year. For the first time I looked at my former colleagues and the patients so closely for a long time. I realized that doctors are trying their best to do something; even they know their place in this powerful system. I cannot help feeling respect for them. But I also find that no matter what the doctors do, no matter what kind of personal characteristics or capabilities they have, they cannot change the results of the system. So I realized this documentary does not show an organization by describing its operation, but displays people's existence and how a bureaucratic system can influence people's fate -- life and death are of no significance under such systems.

This is life, under whose seemingly clearly-defined surface lies essential complexity and ambiguity. This documentary only displays the other side of life, without judgment. But we cannot close our eyes and just pretend we didn't see it.

Homeless FC

Director: Lynn Lee/James Leong

Singapore / 2006 / Col / Betacam / 113Mins
In Cantonese with English subtitles

Synopsis

A reformed gambler, a handsome college dropout, a former gang member and other marginalized men constitute Hong Kong's Dawn Team that assembles faithfully twice every week for a friendly football game. As these men grapple with past addiction, failures and loneliness on the field, they look ahead to the 2006 Homeless World Cup in Cape Town. Following their year of triumphs and losses, this documentary explores the struggles and complexities of lives - and relationships - transformed through football. Another rarely told “Hong Kong Story”.

From HKIFF

Though I Am Gone

Director: Hu Jie

China / 2006 / Col / DV / 68Mins
In Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles

Synopsis

During the Cultural Revolution, Bian Zhongyun, the vice principal of a secondary school was the first victim beaten to death. Her husband, Wang Jingyao, took photographs of her body and her bloody clothes. The film reveals how the social situation developed before and after Bian's death. It demonstrates the ideology and the conflict for Bian's generation. The film powerfully transmits the painful experience of the photographer, showing us his footage but also providing an insight into his personal comprehension of the tragedy. Though I Am Gone is a document to the distorted soul of that tumultuous time lived by a generation in China.

Background

In August 1966, Mao Zedong announced the start of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and millions of youths heeded his call. Red Guards were immediately organized in Beijing’s junior colleges and middle schools. As middle school-aged Red Guards took part in such movements as “Destroy the Four Olds” and “Sweep Away Evil People,” they followed their own understanding of “revolution” as a movement of violence. On August 5 the principal of the Beijing Normal University’s Affiliated Middle School, Bian Zhongyun, was beaten to death by Red Guards. “Red August” had begun, and before the month was over, 1722 cadres, teachers, students and ordinary people would be willfully murdered by “red murderers.”

Director’s note

There are millions of stories to be told about the Cultural Revolution, but I prefer to explore the life of just one victim from that era in depth. The impact of this story is amazing. After his wife’s death, WANG Jingyao, the victim’s husband, took photos of his beloved with his own camera. The images of those tragic days have been preserved to this day. To those who lived through the devastation, this represents a unique example of memory. These photos serve as both witness and testimony. I thus ponder the power of a camera, the struggle to cover things up and the victory of one man’s memory.

Care and Love

Director: Ai Xiaoming

China / 2007 / Col / DV / 105Mins
In Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles

Synopsis

Care and Love draws its inspiration from ‘Investigation of AIDS in Xingtai’, an article by Wang Keqin, senior China Economic Times journalist. The documentary tells the story of Liu Xianhong, a villager who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion during childbirth, and how she publicized her story, filed a lawsuit with her 8-year-old son against the hospital, and eventually received compensation. The bitter experiences of several families, and the collective effort by people living with HIV to defend their rights, resulted in the ‘Care Group’.

Background

The high-profile success of The Blood of Yingzhou District, Best Documentary at the Oscars, has brought worldwide attention to AIDS in China. At about same time, two other works on the subject attracted activists and NGOs to China: The Central Plains (2006), and Care and Love (2007) were shot and directed by Ai Xiaoming, professor at Sun Yat-sen University, assisted by Hu Jie. The film reveals an increasing awareness of civil rights in rural areas. Growing social awareness, media intervention and legal aid have forced local governments to modify policies and improve conditions for AIDS patients. Love and Care shows the possibility for social change.

The Lost Buddha

Director: Tian Bo

China / 2007 / Col / DV / 96Mins
In Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles

Synopsis

The film records the daily life of four generations of a Xianbei nationality family in northern Shaanxi descended from clan lords. Integrated with the Han majority, they live a simple life. The documentary reflects their religious faith and spiritual world and their surroundings. On the edge of modernity, when they face frustration, hardship and loss, they interpret life in a unique way. Their attachment to the soil, religious worship and commitment to destiny all tell us a story about deep, loyal and truthful sentiments.

Background

I come from northern Shaanxi. I used to love taking part in all those activities; so I always felt sad during the shooting. The people have a very rich spiritual world, but are helpless and have no choice. But they are always able to comfort the soul in the traditional way. During a variety of rituals, they seem to come close to the gods. I tried to be as objective as possible and show what I have. I used the plainest narrative. The film epitomises the folk culture of northern Shaanxi. But this village and its culture are doomed.