Documentary Educational Resources - Geography / Asia / China / All Films

A Long Way Home

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:50:23 GMT

A Long Way Home takes us on a fascinating journey into both the grim days of recent Chinese history and the dazzling cultural scene in present-day China. The film centers around five of the most significant representatives of contemporary Chinese counterculture: the visual artists the Gao Brothers, the choreographer and dancer Wen Hui, the animation artist Pi San and the poet Ye Fu. With bravery and subversive wit, they each shed light on the social problems in their country from their unique perspective. Their vision is of a democratic and humane civil society, and, increasingly, their struggle seems as relevant for the world today as it is for China.

Extras:

Interview with Luc Schaedler at Dharamshala International Film Festival (4:45 min)
Ye Fu - On Writing His First Poems (3:30 min)

Wen Hui - Are You A Proletarian? (2:30 min)
Pi San - On Leaving the Country (1 min)
Pi San - Blow Up School (original Kuang Kuang clip) (7:45 min)
Gao Shen - On His Long Way Home (1:30 min)

Selected Screenings
Nomination Prix de Soleure, Nomination für Swiss Film Award, Solothurner Filmtage, Switzerland, 2018

EPOS Intl. Art Filmfestival, Tel Aviv (Israel), 2020

Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels, France, 2019
42e Festival des films du monde Montréal, Canada, 2018
Dharamshala International Film Festival, India, 2018
Innsbruck International Film Festival, Austria, 2019

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Faces of Change: China Coast

Fri, 7 Sep 2018 09:20:00 GMT

Faces of Change: China Coast
Buy Now: $495.00

The fishermen and the island farmers of the Soko Islands in the South China Sea typify coastal harbor communities that have existed for centuries along the China coast, controlled by mainland China or for many decades alien governments in Hong Kong and Macau.

The five films portray two independent cultures that rely on each other in complex ways, the boat people providing fish, transport to markets, and the necessities of survival on the island; the island farmers providing food, a school for boat children and labor when needed on boats and harbor facilities. The day-to-day lives of boat people and island people in this maritime culture three hours from Hong Kong are studies in mutual support, although historically discriminatory between a mainland farm family and boat people, who are seen as second class citizens who floated beyond "civilization."

After the filming in 1973, the entire population, farmers and boat people, were moved by government decree. The farmers were settled in nearby Lantau Island, the fishermen allowed to find harbors where they could. The initial government action was to accommodate refugee boat people from the Vietnam war era, the second to find harbors in Hong Kong's Aberdeen or nearby Cheng Chau where some had relatives and part-time work could be found ashore.

"These films are all set primarily in the Soko Islands, under British rule in Hong Kong territorial waters. They provide an interesting and valuable ethnographic picture of the lives of Chinese islanders and fishermen. Somewhat greater emphasis is given throughout to the fishing families, whose lives are spent almost entirely on their boats, broken only by brief visits to shore to fetch fresh water from a well or buy supplies in a market town.All are visually excellent, providing fascinating studies of details of daily life. In three of the five films narration is kept at a minimum, with direct simultaneous translation of interviews used effectively to provide verbal information, along with occasional translation of small talk and conversation among the Chinese as they go about their work." — Judith Strauch, American Anthropologist, 1977

Films in the China Coast series

China Coast Fishing
Hoy Fok and the Island School
The Island Fishpond
Island in the China Sea
Three Island Women

About the Faces of Change Collection

Faces of Change is comprised of 25 films that examine five cultures selected for their distinct geographic locations: starting with the China Coast at sea level and moving up to Taiwan, then to Afghanistan, Kenya and finally to the mountains of Bolivia. Each location is examined through five themes: Rural Society, Education, Rural Economy, Women, and Beliefs.

This innovative collection of 16mm films and videos was funded by the National Science Foundation, produced by Norman Miller and directed by some of the finest ethnographic filmmakers of its time.

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China Coast Fishing

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

China Coast Fishing
Buy Now: $495.00

China Coast Fishing concerns the traditional "floating population" who fish Chinese coastal waters from family sized Junks based in Hong Kong in competition with salaried fisherman using large, mechanized boats. The combined effect of education and an increased integration with shore life is putting strains on the old ways.

This is a "process film" in that it portrays the economic activities of three fishing families, each pursuing a different kind of fishing. Like the whole Faces Of Change series, it focuses on rural people using small-scale technology. Other fishing methods exist in the South China Sea-the large "long-liners" and deep-sea trawlers are big business operations with hired crews and constantly changing technology.

China Coast fishing styles around Hong Kong waters have changed greatly in the last decade. Most of the sailing junks have given way to junks with small inboard diesel engines. Of the nearly 5,800 registered boats in Hong Kong in 1973, less than 900 had sails of any kind and many of these had auxiliary engines. The scale of fishing operations here is far larger than one might expect. The former British territory of Hong Kong has some 280 islands and encompasses 404 square miles of water.

Fishing people often shelter in the bays of uninhabited islands and use the beaches to clean their boats. Many boats are double licensed and ply the waters of both Hong Kong and mainland China. The small family junk is found along the whole South China coast. The film was made in 1973 on the Soko Islands in the South China Sea. The inhabitants are Cantonese who either fish from small family-owned junks or live ashore raising pineapples, vegetables, and pigs. The area is located three hours by junk from Hong Kong. The Soko Island inhabitants use both Canton and Hong Kong as market centers.

Films in the China Coast series

China Coast Fishing
Hoy Fok and the Island School
The Island Fishpond
Island in the China Sea
Three Island Women

About the Faces of Change Collection

This innovative collection of 16mm films and videos was funded by the National Science Foundation, produced by Norman Miller and directed by some of the finest ethnographic filmmakers of its time.

Visit China to see additional products in this category.

China Remix

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

China Remix
Buy Now: $295.00

This short documentary explores China's burgeoning African entertainment industry through the lives of three African hip-hop artists. Based in the southeastern city of Guangzhou – home to China's largest community of African immigrants – the film follows the entertainers as they try to find success in the face of challenging labor and immigration laws. The film follows the entertainers as they prepare for their shows, perform, and live their daily lives with their Chinese and African family members and friends, against the backdrop of the risk of deporation and ongoing prejudice.

"[A] fascinating film. ... [W]ith the Chinese state fervently pushing investment and development in countries throughout Africa, a new set of relationships is developing. The consequences of these relationships, both within and outside China, are just beginning to be explored, [China Remix] highlights relationships on a personal level [and] is a welcomed contribution."
–Tami Blumenfield, American Anthropologist

SELECTED SCREENINGS AND FESTIVALS

Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York

African Diaspora International Film Festival, New York

Africa World Documentary Film Festival, St. Louis, Missouri

Amakula International Film Festival, Kampala, Uganda

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Cotton Road

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Cotton Road
Buy Now: $320.00

What does a rural town in South Carolina have to do with China?

Americans consume nearly twenty billion new items of clothing each year, and at least one billion of them are made in China. Cotton Road uncovers the transnational movement of cotton and tells the stories of workers lives in a conventional cotton supply chain. From rural farms in South Carolina to factory cities in China, we span the globe to encounter the industrial processes behind our rapacious consumption of cheap clothing and textile products.

Are we connected to one another through the things we consume? Cotton Road explores a contemporary landscape of globalized labor through human stories and provides an opportunity to reflect on the ways our consumption impacts others and drives a global economy.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Honorable Mention, Feature Length Film, Society for Visual Anthropology, 2015

Top Grit, Jury Prize (Best of Festival), Indie Grits Film Festival, 2015

Fork in the Road Award, Jury Prize (Best of Festival), Greentopia Film Festival, 2015

Best Documentary, Documentary Category, Beaufort International Film Festival, 2015

Jury's Choice Award, First Place, Black Maria Film Festival, various locations, 2015

Best Documentary Feature, Documentary Category, Santa Monica Int'l Film Festival, 2014

Honorable Mention, Rural Route Film Festival, locations various, 2014

Honorable Mention, University Film and Video Association, 2014

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Fate of the Lhapa

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Fate of the Lhapa
Buy Now: $320.00

Fate of the Lhapa is a feature-length documentary about the last three Tibetan shamans (lhapas) living in a Tibetan refugee camp in Nepal. With no other descendants to carry on their healing practices and a younger generation attending schools, acculturating, and modernizing, these "sucking doctors" are practicing an endangered tradition. Each lhapa requested that their story be filmed so that an historical record would be created. Their fear was that the next heir might not appear until after the old men's deaths. Subsequently, with no lhapa alive to mentor the children, the documentary would be used to transmit the knowledge to the next generation.

These tales of nomadic childhoods, shamanic callings and apprenticeships, cosmologies of disease and treatments, and of their flight from Tibet during the Chinese occupation in the late 1950s will be juxtaposed with images of present-day life in the camp, current healing practices and shared concerns of the future and the fate of their tradition. This is a touching portrayal of life in exile in a refugee camp in Nepal.

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Herdsmen

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

Herdsmen
Buy Now: $320.00

A small film crew tracks a Kazak family in Xinjiang, China's western-most province, from spring to winter. Unlike the people of Kazakstan, who grew into a nation of farmers and workers, the Kazaks retained their nomadic life and a close bond with nature.

The Kazaks are a small minority among many more tenacious peoples of Xinjiang. To exist they went their way among the mountains and plateaus of the most remote region in the most desolate part of China. The crew follows a typical nomadic family with eleven children as the family travel wherever there is grass for their animals. They endure incredible hardships, sometimes going several days without food. In spite of this they have moments of joy and beauty, believing that nature will support them and that they will survive.

The filmmakers' four-year-long effort shooting the film is part of a recent rise in Chinese filmmakers' documenting their country's ethnic diversity. Although it takes a classic ethnographic, observational approach, the film is stunning in its cinematic, epic style. Richly informative for teaching anthropology, Asian Studies, nomadic cultures and kinship.

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Hoy Fok and the Island School

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

Hoy Fok and the Island School
Buy Now: $495.00

Hoy Fok is a fourteen-year-old boy who lives with his family on a fishing junk near a small island in the Hong Kong Territory. He helps his family in fishing and attends the island school. Education on this small island primarily involves teaching children basic things like simple arithmetic that would help them in selling fish.

The film features interviews with Hoy Fok's teacher, parents and the village headman, all of whom provide their differing viewpoints on his education and his future. His teacher feels that although he joined school too late, he has a natural curiosity and should pursue higher education; however, his parents think that secondary schooling is a waste of money, something they cannot afford.

Films in the China Coast series

China Coast Fishing
Hoy Fok and the Island School
The Island Fishpond
Island in the China Sea
Three Island Women

About the Faces of Change Collection

This innovative collection of 16mm films and videos was funded by the National Science Foundation, produced by Norman Miller and directed by some of the finest ethnographic filmmakers of its time.

Visit China to see additional products in this category.

Gui Dao - On the Way

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:26:00 GMT

Gui Dao - On the Way
Buy Now: $320.00

A penetrating look at urban life in contemporary China, this film takes us into the rhythms of the great train station in Wuchang, a city of four million in Hubei province, 240 kilometers south of Beijing. We watch long lines of passengers guided and exhorted to be orderly by station employees, who win red flags for neat rows of travelers. Young and old workers talk about their daily lives, the impact of the revolution, their jobs. We witness the retirement party of 60-year-old Lin Pingjie, celebrated with thermoses of tea, drums and cymbals, and resounding speeches. At home, Lin Pingjie, his daughter who will replace him at the station, and others in his family discuss their aspirations.

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Island in the China Sea

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:45:00 GMT

Island in the China Sea
Buy Now: $495.00

Tai A Chau is home for both farmers and fishermen who use the island as a permanent harbor for their small floating homes. The daily routines of Mr. Wong, a fisherman, and Mr. Ng, a farmer, are representative of their respective problems of survival, mutual dependence, and hopes for the future.

Island in the China Sea is the introductory film in the China Coast series of Faces of Change. It provides a broad overview of the rural societies of both the island farmer and the boat people who harbor here. It traces the lifestyle of agricultural and fishing families, juxtaposing their daily activities and their tacit interaction. The symbiosis is in delicate balance, however, since ideas of class and caste set the two groups apart. Island farmers have traditionally regarded boat people as inferior.

Films in the China Coast series

China Coast Fishing
Hoy Fok and the Island School
The Island Fishpond
Island in the China Sea
Three Island Women

About the Faces of Change Collection

This innovative collection of 16mm films and videos was funded by the National Science Foundation, produced by Norman Miller and directed by some of the finest ethnographic filmmakers of its time.

Visit China to see additional products in this category.