CHINESE DREAMS

F I L M

S C R E E N I N G S
2013 EDITION

/
EVERY MONDAY 7 PM / PLACE DU LUXEMBOURG 6
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25 MARCH 2013 *****2013325

SELF PORTRAIT

WITH THREE WOMEN

08 APRIL 2013 ***** 201348

MY MOTHERS

RHAPSODY

BY ZHANG MENGQI
2010 / 70 MIN / PRODUCED BY CAOCHANGDI - ZHANG MENQI
SYNOPSIS: This year I turned twenty-three, the age when women become pregnant with
dreams. Yet, while nursing our own dreams, we carry the burdens of two other womens
dreams as well. This film began with myself and then branched to my mother and her mother,
these women who grew up in such different times. Three generations of women, blood flowing from one to the next. My grandmother lives in an oppressive marriage and she hoped my
mother would find the perfect union. When my mothers marriage also failed she turned her
hopes on me. Marriage may be every girls dream, but it can also be a damper of those dreams.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Zhang Mengqi was born in 1987. She graduated from the Dance
Academy of China Minorities University in 2008. She is now a freelance dancer in Beijing. She
has created two dance pieces, Self-portrait and Dialogue with My Mother and Self-Portrait
and Sexual Self-Education. Her documentary films are, Self-portrait With Three Women and
Self-Portrait: At 47 KM.

BY QIU JIONGJIONG
2011 / 106 MIN / PRODUCED BY QIU JIONGJIONG
SYNOPSIS: An eighty-year-old mother and a sixty-year-old son aging in step, give a salty and
savory account of their epic life journey. An eighty-year-old mother and a sixty-year-old son aging in step, stumble in what time they have to defend: their own opinions and their natural gifts.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Qiu Jiongjiong is an artist and independent film director. The
film tells the story of Qius 86-year old grandmother Lin Zhigang. Qiu has in several films
documented his relatives and their life in Sichuan province, including in The Moon Palace
(2007) and Ode to Life (2008).

15 APRIL 2013 ***** 2013415

22 APRIL 2013 ***** 2013422

*****
I BEAT THE
TIGER
201348 PEOPLES ARTIST

WHEN I WAS YOUNG

BY XUE JIANQIANG
2010 / 75 MIN / PRODUCED BY XUE JIANQIANG
SYNOPSIS: Middle age writer Ka likes to hang around with young people, but in his heart
he doesnt want to feature them in his camera. His genuine feeling is to beat people up.
While chatting with others, he would say the camera is something to play with; but actually he just talks about his memories. He invites others to take off their pants in front of the
camera, this is just a glimpse. He only judges others when he is pissed off, but usually he is
quite a harmonious guy. He swears that he also beated a tiger when he was young.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Xue Jianqiang left home at age sixteen. He has had jobs in a
steel mill, a car wash and a hair salon as well as taught computers and worked as an animation
technician. An avid writer and draughtsman, he has produced over dozens of animation and
fiction short films to date. Three Small Animals is his first feature-length documentary.

JIA JINSHU

BY WU HAOHAO
2008 / 75 MIN / PRODUCED BY WU HAOHAO

SYNOPSIS: A self-published writer embarks on a three-year walking tour of China to sell

his novels and a lead a bohemian life as a writer on the road. The director spent one day with
him to record his thoughts and experiences, searching to reveal what drove him to pursue his
lifestyle.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Wu Haohao, male, born 1986 into a normal family in Shanxi
Taiyuan, China. Father is a worker, while mother is a peasant. Primary education in Shanxi,
while university education in Chongqing. Presently, he works in Beijing as a freelance artist.

29 APRIL 2013 ***** 2013429

CRITICIZING CHINA

BY WU HAOHAO
2008 / 118 MIN / PRODUCED BY WU HAOHAO

SYNOPSIS: In the Yingze park Taiyuan City, a group of elderlies would herd together at the
bird-feeding point nearly everyday for some talks of political sensitivity of China.
From May 20th 2008, Haohao has brought his digital video camera and his colleague to be
criticized to the park, and shot these people for five days.
It is a pair of eyes, an act, a performance, a dissemination, a piece of thought, one time criticism, an experience of pain, a quest for meaning.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Wu Haohao, male, born 1986 into a normal family in Shanxi
Taiyuan, China. Father is a worker, while mother is a peasant. Primary education in Shanxi,

20 MAY 2013

***** 2013520

: 47

SELF-PORTRAIT:

AT 47 KM

BY ZHANG MENGQI
2012 / 77 MIN / PRODUCED BY CAOCHANGDI - ZHANG MENQI

SYNOPSIS: This film takes place in a village called 47 KM. Its called this because its located at the 47th kilometer marker on the road from Suizhou in Hubei Province. My father was born there. He left when he was twenty
years old but my grandfather still lives there. In 2010, as a participant in the Folk Memory Project, I went to the
village twice, once in the summer and again in the winter. The village seemed completely disconnected from
my life. However, I re-discovered my grandfather and began to understand him and the other villagers who
lived through the great famine fifty years ago. I also got to know the village, which had always perplexed and
embarrassed me. What does Village 47 KM mean to me? Like a mirror, I see myself reflected there.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Zhang Mengqi was born in 1987. She graduated from the Dance Academy of
China Minorities University in 2008. She is now a freelance dancer in Beijing. She has created two dance pieces,
Self-portrait and Dialogue with My Mother and Self-Portrait and Sexual Self-Education. Her documentary
films are, Self-portrait With Three Women and Self-Portrait: At 47 KM.

29 APRIL 2013 ***** 2013429

SATIATED VILLAGE

BY ZOU XUEPING
2011 / 88 MIN / PRODUCED BY ZOU XUEPING

SYNOPSIS: After I finished my documentary The Hungry Village, I returned to my hometown to screen it for
my family. They were unanimously against it. All of them believed it was dangerous to investigate the famine
in our village that took place fifty years before. They agreed that a college graduate should have a stable job
and not run around interviewing old people and making documentaries. Their reactions frustrated me and
their doubts raised doubts in me. I had to do some soul searching and reconsider my life goals. When I opposed their opinions it was the first time in all of the twenty-five years Id been alive. Fortunately, I didnt face
them all alone. My 9-year old niece stood by me and was my little angel. The old folks I had interviewed The
Hungry Village were also for my work in documentary. But when they saw the film they believed it shouldnt
be screened outside of China. Since it exposed the history of the famine foreigners would laugh at China.
The village has recovered from the catastrophic famine fifty years ago and there is no shortage of food. But my
big question is, is the villages spirit starving?
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Zou Xueping (b. 1985) graduated from China Fine Arts Academy in 2009. She
is currently a resident artist at Caochangdi Workstation. Her documentaries are: Mom (2008), The Starving
Village (2010) and Satiated Village (2011). In 2011, she created her first theater piece Family Opposition. She
also performed in the theater piece Memory 2: Hunger by Living Dance Studio.

6 MAY 2013

***** 201356

LUO VILLAGE:
REN DINGQI AND ME

BY LUO BING
2010 / 80 MIN / PRODUCED BY LUO BING

SYNOPSIS: I went back to Luo Village in Zhuzhou in Hunan Province where I was born and raised. I began
interviewing elderly villagers about their memories of the Great Chinese Famine (1959-1961). This was met
with unexpected resistance. Unexpectedly, an old man supported me and helped me approach many of his
comrades in the village. His name is Ren Dingqi and he was my neighbor. More surprisingly, this old timer,
who had lived his whole life in the village and only had a couple of years of education, had written a memoir
that was hundreds of thousands of characters long. It recorded his life from Liberation (1949) to the present.
He didnt rush to show it to me, however. What was he so worried about? Did it really exist at all? Why did
he write it? Where did he keep it? I was curious and began imagining all the possibilities. Again and again I
approached Ren Dingqi with my muddled thoughts and questions, and he helped me see the realities of my
village, which I didnt know before.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Luo Bing was born in 1986 and graduated from the China Fine Arts Academy
in 2009. He is currently a resident artist at Caochangdi Workstation. Luo Village: Ren Dingqi and Me is his
first documentary film.

13 MAY 2013

***** 2013520

13 MAY 2013

***** 2013513

47
SELF PORTRAIT

MY GRANDPAS

BY ZHANG MENGQI

BY JIA NANNAN

DANCING AT 47 KM

2011 / 77 MIN / PRODUCED BY CAOCHANGDI - ZHANG MENQI

SYNOPSIS: When Zhang Mengqi asked the elders of his village on the famine 1959-61, the
memorial project awakens memories but also denial.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Zhang Mengqi was born in 1987. She graduated from the Dance
Academy of China Minorities University in 2008. She is now a freelance dancer in Beijing. She
has created two dance pieces, Self-portrait and Dialogue with My Mother and Self-Portrait
and Sexual Self-Education. Her documentary films are, Self-portrait With Three Women and
Self-Portrait: At 47 KM.

WINTER

2011 / 30 MIN / PRODUCED BY JIA NANNAN

SYNOPSIS: I felt I should film my grandfather in order to try to understand him better. I
never thought about how my grandfather spent his winters. And now, after making the film, I
know more. I know more about his thoughts.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Jia Nannan was born in 1991 and now works in Caochangdi
Workstation in Beijing. My Grandpas Winter is his first documentary film.

22 APRIL 2013 ***** 2013422

HONG KONG

SHORT MOVIES

FOCUS ON
HONG
KONG
HONG
KONG
HONG
KONG
HONG
KONG
HONG KONG

NIGHT
LIFE, BEYOND LIFE / WONG YAN CHUN THE
CHAINED KNOTS / SIU YIN YU LEFT BEHIND /
LEUNG YU THE LIFE AND TIME OF HO CHUNG
VILLAGE / TSANG TSUI SHAN THIS PAIR /
WONG YEE MEI SAM HUI YAT / HO CHUNG KEN

22 APRIL 2013 ***** 2013422

DAYS AFTER N COMING

22 APRIL 2013 ***** 2013422

THE PASSENGERS

BY LO CHUN YIP
2011 / 100 MIN / PRODUCED BY LO CHUN YIP

SYNOPSIS: The year 2010 has seen a turbulent time for us. From the New Years March onwards, protests can be seen taking place all over Hong Kong, as protestors cry out for their disagreement against the construction of the High-Speed Express Rail Link, the demolishment of
Choi Yuen Village, the 2011-12 Budget and in support for the international Street-Occupying
Movement. Participants come together even when there is no longer a specific leading figure,
and dedicate to learn on the way, as long as there is still injustice to be fought against in the
coming future.to confront the brutal facts of reality, to safeguard the kind of lifestyle they want
to live. This is a fable from industrial building.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Lo Chun Yip , born in 1986, is a 2011 graduate from the School
of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. From 2008 onwards, he has directed several
short films, such as deep in mind, 21 years after, to be continued. His latest work is Days
After n Coming.

BY DONG HUA

2010 / 53 MIN / PRODUCED BY DONG HUA

SYNOPSIS: Zhang Wenhai, a young Chinese artist from Shanghan. Cui Zhaoying, a Chinese girl who was born in Belgium. Xu Enhao, a Chinese student who is living in Leuven,
these three young Chinese are living in different areas of Belgium. they are all looking for
their identities.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Dong Hua is a Chinese filmmaker living in Belgium. He
graduated in film directing at Sint Lukas Brussel in 2010. He has made several fiction films,
documentaries and experimental films. To be independent is very important to him and
his films. The passenger is his first feature documentary film.


WE ARE ALIVE
22 APRIL 2013 ***** 2013422

BY YAU CHING
2010 / 101 MIN / PRODUCED BY YAU CHING

SYNOPSIS: We Are Alive documents a process of conducting media production workshops in juvenile reform
and welfare institutes in Hong Kong, Macau and Sapporo, Japan. The teenagers in the workshop play with still
and video cameras and sound recorders to express their feelings and thoughts, appropriate mainstream popular culture as it was their own, re-imagine their lives as meaningful, respond creatively to the repressive environment around them through fantasies, dreams and songs, and write video letters to strangers and to their
future selves. This documentary allows us to gain a fresh understanding of these incarcerated youths fascinating life stories told from their unique perspectives, and by doing so, helps us to reflect upon the protection
imposed upon our teenagers, limits of our civility and the openness of our society.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: In order not to be incarcerated, Yau Ching has continued to write fiction and
poetry and make films and videos. Her films/videos include Ho Yuk: Lets Love Hong Kong (Grand Prix for
Fiction, Figueira da Foz International Film Festival, Portugal), Im Starving (Silver Prize, Brno16 Film Festival,
Czech Republic), Diasporama: Dead Air (Hong Kong Independent Film and Video Awards Silver Prize), Video
Letters and Flow (Special Jury Prize, Image Forum, Japan). She teaches at Hong Kong Lingnan University.