Chinese Documentary Festival 2010

In China, there are over a million cases of appeals submitted to the Court of the Complainants in Beijing every year. These people are seeking to right the wrongs committed by government officials. Ninety-nine percent of the cases are unresolved, but this doesn’t deter more from joining the long queue. Despite being constantly harassed and even sending to mental institutes, some of them keep going back demanding the justice they deserve.

The Tangshan Earthquake of 1976 killed 240,000 people, leaving thousands injured. Buried, in a calm and objective tone, presents the history of the Great Tangshan Earthquake. The film explores the unknown truth of a historical tragedy, featuring interviews with experts who recall the concealment of information by the government of the Tangshan tragedy and their indifference towards earthquake forecasts. More tragedy unfolds as history repeats itself during the Sichuan Earthquake in 2008.

Wang Libo started out as a photographer before moving on to filming documentaries in 2004. Buried was featured in film festivals in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Switzerland’s VISIONS DU REEL - Festival international de cinema. It won the 6th Documentary Film Festival China.

Huge amounts of waste in the Yangtze Three Gorges have not only polluted the waters but also threatened the shipping industry. In 2003, fisherman Liu Gujun started a cleaning team among civilians to dispose of the waste that covered some 10 miles of waters in Changjiang Chongqing. The film documents how the team eventually buckled under heavy financial pressure of wages and boat and truck rentals. Of the original 100 or so team members, only four to five remain today.

Chen Fu teaches at Chongqing University while Shen Shiping is a TV screen writer. Their joint documentary on environmental protection, The Lost Village in Desert, had featured in the World Bank’s Micro Documentary Contest.

In Hangzhou, children who wandered from the villages into the city were placed into the Protection Centre for Street Children. Wang Panpan’s mother passed away and his father is in jail. A diligent child, Wang is tasked with taking care of other younger children with mental disabilities at the Centre with no time for school. Wu Jingjing has good grades but is often melancholy. She longs for the home she has lost, but she is not able to explain to the social worker her background. Her only hope is that her mother will one day come looking for her.

Ma Fangfang is studying in the broadcasting news department at Zhejiang University. Her works include View Point and Where is Our Future. Ma’s films have been screened at several film festivals in China.

The anatomy of menstruation is still considered taboo in many societies. Presenting shared personal stories of menstruation from the director’s friends and relatives, and also her own experiences, the film explores how prejudice and stereotypes impact on the way women deal with their bodies and their selves.

Chiang Ying-ching is a graduate of ethnic studies at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University and Graduate Institute of Sound and Image Studies in Documentary at the Tainan National University of the Arts. Chiang is currently working on making short films.

Deep in debt after paying for his son’s wedding, Zhang reluctantly found himself a job as an electronic waste dismantler. After her father passed away, Qiuxia and her mother tried to make ends meet by working at the waste disposal site, despite knowing the hazards it brings.

As advanced countries continue to dump on China millions tons of metal waste each year, tens of thousands workers from poor areas make a living out of disposing of such toxic waste with the barest tools and most primitive methods.

Jin Huaqing works at a TV station. His documentary on environmental protection, Living with Shame, received accolades from film festivals over the world, including the Stork Nest Grand Prix at the Green Wave-21st Century European Environment Festival and the award for Best Director at the International TV Festival Bar Montenegro 2008.

As China’s economy soars, so has marital discord in Chinese families, with a higher rate of divorce and extra marital affairs. Private detective agencies sprang up in many cities of China in the early 90’s. Fang, a veteran detective, roams the cities to investigate affairs and look for proof, all on the edge of the law. Through Fang’s work, the film explores the shaky institution of marriage in contemporary China.

Pan Zhiqi studied at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts and the Beijing Film Academy. He has produced documentaries, dramas and experimental films. His works The Lost Wall and The Story of Zhuo Mount have been shown in local and overseas film festivals.

The world’s longest crane migration route in East China is currently threatened by overdevelopment and habitat loss. The town of Xianghai is located along this endangered path. To raise people’s awareness of protecting their environment, teachers and students of the Xianghai Art School plan to draw a mural on the town street wall and conduct a survey in the community before they start. The film looks at how the students’ enthusiasm is matched (or not) by the government officials they interview.

Huang Mingming’s works include The Children live At Foot of the Great Wall, and Women 50 minutes.

Gao Luli is a graduate from the Nanjing Normal University. She has worked at a business newspaper and CCTV. Her recent focus is on environmental issues.

San Francisco’s Chinatown is the largest and oldest Chinese community in North America. Since the 1930s, homesick immigrants have found solace in movies shown at the Chinatown theaters, reflecting their own experiences onto the movies’ characters. The film explores the joys and sorrows of Chinese immigrant families and how they have found temporary refuge in the mesmerizing, celluloid world.

Born in Hong Kong, Ruby Yang immigrated to the US in 1977. She has edited and directed many films on Chinese Americans. Her documentary The Blood of Yingzhou District won the 2006 Oscar for Documentary Short Subject film.