CHINA VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES

CHINA FROM
THE INSIDE

Here are ten wonderful video documentaries on China.  None of them comes close to 'explaining' China, or even depicting it. It takes 2-5 years to make and release a documentary, so all of these show a glimpse of recent history. By necessity, they are told from the Western point of view using a Western vocabulary.  Taken together they convey a fascinating impression of the fast-moving giant.   Several are available on streaming video and can be watched with a single mouse-click!

China From the Inside. 

Four 60 minute episodes: 

1. Power and the People

2. Women of the Country

3. Shifting Nature

4. Freedom and Justice 

DISORDER

Disorder (Xianshi Shi Guoqu de Weilai)

HUANG Weikai, China (2009) Documentary, 58 minutes

Mandarin w/ English subtitles

"One of the most mesmerizing films I've seen in ages"--Hua Hsu, The Atlantic.
Captures the anarchy, violence, and seething anxiety animatinng China's major cities today.  As urbanization in China advances at breakneck speed, Chinese cities teeter on the brink of mayhem.

MANUFACTURED
LANDSCAPES

 Manufactured Landscapes (2006)
 At one point in the absorbing if unsettling documentary “Manufactured Landscapes,” about the work of the Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, a few unnamed voices try to assure a couple of Chinese officials not to worry. Mr. Burtynsky, these voices say, will make everything — meaning the mountains of coal that seem to stretch on forever behind them — beautiful. And so Mr. Burtynsky does. Whether in a coal distribution center or a garbage dump, he turns the grotesque into something beautiful, or at least something that looks good on a gallery wall. (NYT)


Petition (2009)

PETITION

The right of the people to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” as the First Amendment to the United States Constitution phrases it, would seem to be a basic feature of the relationship between citizen and state. Even nondemocratic systems acknowledge the principle that the rulers should listen to the complaints of the ruled. Zhao Liang’s “Petition,” a brave and wrenching new documentary from China, takes a bottom-up view of the cruel and absurd ways that lofty ideal is put into practice on the streets of Beijing.

Once Upon a Time Proletarian (2009)

ONCE UPON A
TIME PROLETAIAN

Shows the present state of China through twelve platforms, an old farmer, a middle aged waitress, a car washer, a weapons dealer, fish store owners, a barber, a factory owner, a park ranger, a shopping mall employee, etc. These various faces of the so-called proletarian class ask, what is a dream? Answers to this question exist in the interview with each character, but is conveyed much more clearly through the black and white image of the children putting up their 
future as security as shots are heard continually behind them.

PLEASE VOTE
FOR ME

Please Vote for Me (2007)

Now it's time to vote. You decide who will be class monitor. You are master of your own choice. Think about it seriously—voting is a sacred matter.—Teacher Zhang

An experiment in democracy is taking place in Wuhan, the most populous city in central China. For the first time ever, the students in grade three at Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China have been asked to elect a class monitor. Traditionally appointed by the teacher, the class monitor holds a powerful position, helping to control the students, keeping them on task and doling out punishment to those who disobey. The teacher has chosen three candidates: Luo Lei (a boy), the current class monitor; Cheng Cheng (a boy); and Xu Xiaofei (a girl). Each candidate is asked to choose two assistants to help with his or her campaign.

UP THE YANGTZE

Up the Yangtze (2007)

A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze, navigating the mythic waterway known in China simply as "The River." In the biggest engineering endeavour since the Great Wall, China has set out to harness the Yangtze with the world's largest mega-dam.

Meanwhile at the river's edge Yu Shui says goodbye to her family and turns to face the future. From their small patch of land, her parents watch the young woman walk away, her belongings clutched in a plastic shopping bag. The waters are rising.

The Three Gorges Dam, gargantuan and hotly contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle, provides the epic and unsettling backdrop for Up the Yangtze, a dramatic and disquieting feature documentary on life inside the 21st century Chinese dream.

Stunningly photographed and beautifully composed, Up the Yangtzejuxtaposes the poignant and sharply observed details of Yu Shui's story against the monumental and ominous forces at work all around her.

LAST TRAIN HOME

Last Train Home (2009)

A couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower. By the maker of Up The Yangtze.  If you liked that, you'll love this very mature, moving drama of ordinary people struggling to do extraordinary things...