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Captain Elliot's Circle

Equal parts documentary, essay, and narrative,"Captain Elliot's Circle" is mostly a poetic interaction with an obscure corner of Chinese and British history. Constructed using primary source documents about the taking of Zhoushan, Britain's first choice for a seaport, in the late 1830s,this movie uses Captain Charles Elliot's reluctance to brutalize the Chinese to reflect on the cyclical nature of history and the power structures that move it. The long takes used throughout function to illustrate the dramatically different ways in which people who lived in the mid-19th century perceived time. Additionally, it represents the psychological effect of living on an island regardless of what era you were born in.The last third of the movie focuses on a young woman whose strange day job has taken her far away from the island of Zhoushan generations after Captain Charles Elliot was last there. "Captain Elliot's Circle" was shot on location in Zhoushan and Hangzhou.

Captain Elliot's Circle

10.0 2023
Rivers

"The river Lek reminded me of the river Xiang in my hometown Changsha. I had not been home for 3 years and one of the connections with home was the poems my dad wrote me every day via WeChat. The rivers seemed equally significant for the people in the Netherlands and in Changsha. They are both a romantic connection and an important symbol of daily trade and industry. In a Wechat session my father and I simultaneously read three pairs of poems we wrote for this occasion, he by the Xiang and I by the Lek. Giving the words to the waters that ultimately will meet somewhere in the ocean. The video shows fragments of the performance which took place at the same time in Changsha and Culemborg in June. The full-length documentation is presented as a dual-screen video installation. The three poems written by me can be found on the page "Writing"."

Rivers

NR 2023
Eat Bitter

A local construction worker and a Chinese engineer are assigned to build a bank in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, one of the poorest countries in the world. But time is short and resources are scarce, and there are rumours in the countryside that a new civil war is brewing. And as if all this wasn’t bad enough, their relationships to their wives are falling apart. ‘Eat Bitter’ mirrors the existential and mundane problems of the two men, while an unlikely friendship and mutual trust blossoms between them. However, the chaotic microcosm of the construction site also mirrors China’s contradictory role in 21st century Africa, with the bank itself as the ultimate symbol of money, power and illusion. Director duo Pascale Appora-Gnekindy and Ningyi Sun themselves represent each of the two cultures, and their film has a unique eye for the human fallibility and irony of it all, but also for how we can reach each other despite all our many differences.

Eat Bitter

2.0 2023
Guardians of the Wild

Embark on a thrilling journey into the heart of the Northeast Tiger National Park, where researchers and scientists are dedicated to tracking and studying the majestic tigers that roam freely. Witness their tireless efforts as they employ innovative methods to understand the behaviour and monitor population trends of these elusive creatures. Delve deeper into the story as we unveil the cultural significance of tigers and their conservation efforts in the region. Witness the delicate balance of nature and the interconnectedness of diverse habitats, illustrating the importance of conservation efforts in maintaining biodiversity and ecological harmony. Join us on this unforgettable expedition with exclusive access, where science, technology, culture, and conservation intertwine to reveal the extraordinary world of tigers and their critical role in preserving the natural wonders of the Northeast Tiger National Park and Heilongjiang province, China.

Guardians of the Wild

NR 2023
Gagaland

Small-town kid Boy K is fleeing his job at the duck-down factory when he stumbles into a motley crew of urchins boogieing on the pavement for likes and shares. This is gaga dance: a form of spirited freestyle championed in China by ‘the king’, Pink Hair. Boy K quickly becomes the rising star in Pink Hair’s crew, amassing thousands of subscribers. Will he win the affections of fellow gaga dancer B Girl, or cause trouble in his gang – and the gaga dance underworld beyond it?

Gagaland

NR 2023
Before Sandstorm

In a vast expanse of desert sands two men exchange health tips: “Wild boar meat is good for your lungs,” says one. “Wild boars and groundhogs,” replies the other. They press bunches of straw into the sand to combat the desertification and sandstorms here in the Tengger Desert of northwest China. A little later we see other people, men and women, doing the same work. In this immense swathe of sand—the Tengger is about the size of the Netherlands— their labor looks like a Sisyphean task. Perhaps it is due to the resulting sense of pointlessness that the conversations start to take on a more serious tone. One of the two men tells of how his wife left him, and how he had to raise his child alone. He once envisioned a different kind of life, but things go as they go. “Our fate is like an unbreakable wall,” he observes, with a resigned tone.

Before Sandstorm

NR 2023
This Woman

Alan Zhang's film delves into the journey of Beibei, a young woman grappling with societal expectations amidst the COVID-19 epidemic. As Beibei navigates the complexities of life, marriage, and her roles as a wife, mother, and daughter, the film provocatively questions the constraints of conventional gender roles. The film immerses us in the life of Beibei, who refuses to let her identity be defined by others, who demands the right to find out for herself who she is and what she wants. Moving from city to city and from lover to lover, she defies society’s expectations of what a woman should do and be. Blurring the lines between reality and fiction, the film boldly challenges traditional gender expectations, showcasing the struggles and triumphs of emancipated women like Beibei.

This Woman

8.0 2023
Of Color & Ink

The documentary that uncovers the creative, political, and spiritual journeys of China’s foremost 20th-century painter Chang Dai-chien (1899-1983). The film follows his unusual life journey from pre-Communist China to Argentina, the jungles of Brazil; his much acclaimed exhibits in Paris and Germany in the 1960s; as well as his final years in California and Taiwan, in a thirty-year exile in the West that has been shrouded in mystery. Through interviews and previously unseen archival materials, we follow three decades of this artist’s creative and spiritual quest far from his homeland.

Of Color & Ink

NR 2023
Letter to T: In Nuclearity, We Are Connected

With a contemplative letter to a friend as its point of departure, this video essay examines the complex, paradoxical visuality of the atom bomb in China. From 1960s military documentaries to contemporary CGI-enhanced fictions, a visual trope of the communal “People’s Bomb” was orchestrated in counterpoint to the evils of imperialism and the untamed wilderness of the Gobi Desert. Amid the ecological crises of the Anthropocene, Letter to T suggests that despite the disenchantment with and the re-politicisation of the image, we might find radical sources of connection and endurance in nuclearity.

Letter to T: In Nuclearity, We Are Connected

NR 2023
Birds in Cage

"Birds would fly, China caged at all." Unlike the West, China and its economic activities fend for themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exports have been halted overall due to the Chinese CCP's confidence in the totalitarian control and the mirage of domestic economic resurgence throughout the socio-political regime. The countless factories and plants like I recorded this time were scraped by the stress. China re-enters a dilemma of self-consuming, selling at home and being like the rest part of the world as well as enclosed again, similar as the circling laborers in this documentary film. The impacts spread to at least millions of manufacturing are as such as the Shangyu, Wufu plant in Zhejiang Province.

Birds in Cage

NR 2023
Stone Town

The easternmost fishing town in China sits on the cusp of radical change, as this quietly devastating film details. Once a major hub for the Chinese fishing industry, Stone Town is facing seismic change. With its economic bedrock at risk, the small, secluded town is turning towards tourism as a way to support its local population. Jing Guo and Dingding Ke’s film balances intimate portraits of the townsfolk, whose lives are impacted by the coming change, with a wider perspective on the modernisation project driven by Xi Jinping’s government. The filmmakers capture the anxiety, sorrow and confusion of the people, in tandem with a perspective on a burgeoning environmental crisis, the ramifications of political turbulence and injustice at the way rapid modernisation impacts everyday lives. Stone Town is a compelling portrait of a world where feelings of despair and frustration are drowned by late-night drinks and non-stop karaoke singing in dingy bars.

Stone Town

NR 2023
My Grandfather Liu Wencai

In the first 30 years of the PRC, in order to maintain and consolidate CCP’s rule, political campaigns were frequently launched. Landowner Liu Wencai’s home in Sichuan province became the "Landlord Manor Exhibition Hall," serving to educate people about the class struggle. Tens of thousands visited daily. The cluster of sculptures entitled "Rent Collection Courtyard" was the subject of a documentary film and the prototype for copies of statues exhibited across the country. The overwhelming media publicity turned Liu Wencai into the representative of the "heinous crimes" of the landlord class and he became a household name, influencing several generations. Liu Xiaofei, grandson of Liu Wencai, has suffered from injustice since his childhood and began his interviews and investigations into this catastrophe for his family twenty years ago, in order to “clear” the charges against his grandfather and restore the historical truth.

My Grandfather Liu Wencai

NR 2023
Train 5639

5639/5640 Green Leather Slow Train, the "mountain bus", has maintained low fares during more than 20 years of operation. You can get a rare income in remote mountainous areas.\r This film reflects the humanistic care of Train 5639 by showing the deep friendship between Wu Wenzhen and other vegetable farmers and the people and things on Train 5639.\r This trip The train serves as a bridge for the Miao villagers to communicate with the outside world, and it carries the desire of the mountain villagers to live a happy life. It is not the speed that is slow, but the patience to keep pace with the low- and middle-income people.

Train 5639

7.0 2023
Rooster the Golden Comb

How should I love you, my child? This story is a mother’s agonizing journey of parenting. Wu Jun, a mother in her 50s, has been in emotional turbulence for over a decade. In 2004, Quanquan, her then-16-year-old daughter, suddenly jumped to her death. Unexpectedly, Quanquan’s last words had nothing to do with her parents. The mother was filled with agony and bewilderment, questioing what she had done wrong, and her beloved husband, unable to bear the weight of the loss, moved away from Hangzhou. To start anew, Wu raised another girl, Tingting. Amid intense education competition, she racks her brains to pave the way for Tingting’s better future. However, the girl became rather difficult after entering puberty. Why is parent-child relationship so challenging? How should a mother face her own life? By the beautiful West Lake, Wu starts to read her late daughter’s favorite fable, ROOSTER THE GOLDEN COMB – Fate is as cunning as the fox in the story…

Rooster the Golden Comb

NR 2023
Flower Chasers

In China, beekeeping is an ancient and traditional profession. Every spring, beekeepers migrate huge distances with their bees in search of the best nectar to harvest the highest quality honey. Relying on the changing seasons and fluctuating temperatures, making a living is becoming increasingly difficult in this traditional industry. Flower Chasers follows the journey of young beekeeper Xiaolong and his family as they travel across China in search of flowers and honey, witnessing the precarious living conditions beekeepers face, along with the threat of an ecological crisis.

Flower Chasers

NR 2023