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Chinese Independent Documentary--Village Documentary Project :
CIDFA027:
Village Documentary Project
Directors: 10 Village film makers
Length: 95min
Production Year: 2006
Production: Caochangdi Workstation
Synopsis:
This video is a collection of ten short documentary films, each of ten minutes in length. They are ten funny films made by ten amateur villager filmmakers (age ranging from 24 to 59) selected from around China who are eager to discover their home villages through the DV lens and to tell stories and be heard, for the first time in their lives.
It is the first time that Chinese villagers took up a DV camera to shoot a documentary of their own on the changing rural public lives and the changing countryside dynamics in their home villages within the developing democratic system known as “village self-governance.” For the first time public and political lives of Chinese villages are captured through the lens of the people who belong there. Villages can never be so real if seen by an outsider.
Filmmakers’ Bio:
Nong Ke, Male, aged 59, an ethnic Zhuang farmer from Guangxi province, film title: A Welfare Council
Zhang Huancai, Male, aged 45, a Shaanxi native, film title: A Nullified Election,
Zhou Cengjia, Male, aged 42, a farmer from Hu’nan, film title: Village Head Wu Aiguo
Shao Yuzhen, Female, aged 55, a farmer from Beijing, film title: I Film My Village
Ni Lianghui, Male, aged 35, a Hu’bei native, currently running a barber shop in the coastal province of Guangdong, film title: Returning Home for the Election
Tshe Ring Sqrolma, Female, aged 24, an ethnic Tibetan living in Yunnan, film title: The Spirit Mountain,
Jia Zhitan, Male, aged 55, a farmer from Hu’nan, film title: The Quarry,
Fu Jiachong, Male, aged 49, a village Communist Party chairman from He’nan, film title: Our Village Committee,
Wang Wei, Male, aged 28, a farmer from Shandong, film title: Allocation of Land,
Yi Chujian, Male, aged 26, a villager from Zhejiang, currently making a living by doing camerawork for a wedding video studio in a nearby town, film title: Did You Go Back for the Election?
Introduction of the ten films:
A Welfare Council
Concept and Camera: Nong Ke
Editing: Zhang Xiaoyan
Synopsis
The film documents a village meeting on the reallocation of a government-assigned poverty alleviation fund worth of 10,000 yuan. The village head convened the meeting and all the villagers, old and young, participated. The meeting took place under a big tree in the village. The money should go to twenty households that were in dire need of financial assistance, such as those families in which the husband had died, or had physically challenged persons, invalids, or many school-age kids. The review meeting followed a traditional, fair practice of election: bowls were put under the names of the applicants, and villagers took turns to vote by dropping beans in the bowls of those whom they thought should have the money. The village head counted the number of beans in the bowls afterwards and announced the names of those with the greatest numbers of beans. Each funded household would receive 500 yuan.
A Nullified Election
Concept and Camera: Zhang Huancai
Editing: Zhang Xiaoyan
Synopsis
The election for the village head in this film took place in the Shijiazhai Village, Lantian County, Shaanxi Province. The filmmaker Zhang Huancai is a local villager. He walked around the village everyday with his DV camcorder and wished to capture his fellow villagers’ opinions and reactions towards the election. That is how those lively and palpable lives from the rural Northwest China appear in front of the camera: men working in the fields put down their work and rush to look into the camera, wondering what curiosity is hiding in there; a mother holding her crying baby remarks on one of the candidates: “He could be the village head? All he knows is eating!”; a woman carrying a washbasin warns the filmmaker with a laugh that he should be careful not to show it inadvertently to whoever; when a villager is asked why he didn’t go run for the position of the village head, he replies tout court: “I am more eligible to be an ‘eating head’;” and there are those curious kids who howl into the camera: “This is a monster from the world of magic…”
Village Head Wu Aiguo
Concept and Camera: Zhou Cengjia
Editing: Li Haihan
Synopsis
Wu Aiguo is a village head of over fifty in Changshou Township, Pingjiang County, Yueyang, Hunan Province. The villagers elected him to his current position. Facing the camera, he says: “I am quite a rebel. Someone like me might not have had any chance, but this year they dare not block me out, so the people elected me.”
Calling himself as a “rebel,” Wu Aiguo is a non-CCP village head. He loves wearing the green military uniform despite the fact that he has never been in the army. The villagers call him a “mobster village head.” He explains how he wins that nickname: “I quarreled before with the township director and Party secretary in the township government, pounding my fists on their office desk. I told them that they had cheated in the elections and it was unfair.”
I Film My Village
Concept and Camera: Shao Yuzhen
Editing: Ma Jun
Synopsis
Just like its name, this film is about the daily life in a village. The shooting itself resembles the daily life of the filmmaker Shao Yuzhen, a peasant woman over fifty. She captures what she sees, hears, talks about and meets in her village: several men (including Shao’s husband) hang out in the fields discussing the land problems encountered by some villagers; Shao runs into the village head at the village committee office and asks him when the meeting on the land problems will be held; Shao also explains to fellow villagers that her filming is totally free of charge (unlike the TV stations). She even brings her camera when she goes to mediate between a fighting couple, saying “if you go on fighting, I’ll record it all here.” When she runs into fellow villagers, we hear some lively greetings and conversations that form part of the daily communication between the villagers: “Have you sold all your cabbage?” “Made a fortune today?” “Taking pictures here? What for?” “I’m taking pictures of you, just for fun.”…
Returning Home for the Election
Concept and Camera: Ni Lianghui
Editing: Qiu Qian
Synopsis
A guy who has been away for ten years came back home for the first time. He wanted to take part in the election at his home village and he did it with a movie camera in his hands.
The filmmaker came home to Xiangjiahe Village, Hubei Province. Maybe because he has been away for too long, the filmed villagers are not yet used to his appearance, not to mention the “thing” he has in his hands. Thus we see the villagers’ hesitance and distance in front of the camera.
At the election site, everybody is his own boss. All the filmmaker needs to do is to record the various individual values as embodied and expressed in this particular magnetic field called “election.” At such a moment, the red-colored ballots weigh more than anything else.
The Spirit Mountain
Concept/Camera/Editing: Tshe Ring Sqrolma
Synopsis
The film starts with the story of the Holy Mountain told by an aged Tibetan who lives in a village at the foot of Meili Snow Mountain. The village—Mingyong Village in Deqing County, Diqing Prefecture, Yunnan Province—is also the hometown of the filmmaker Cili Zhuoma. While being a holy mountain for the local Tibetans, Meili Snow Mountain is merely a picturesque tourist site or a place for adventures for visitors from outside. Could the local villagers worship their holy mountain according to their own traditions, or should they capitalize on its promise for tourism so as to change their material life? This little Tibetan village cuddling in a small corner of the world cannot escape the classical conflict between tradition and modernity that is unfolding in numerous places all over China.
The Quarry
Concept and Camera: Jia Zhitan
Editing: Ma Jun
Synopsis
As explained in the opening caption in the documentary, this is a true story that is happening in the present tense: “The quarry in this film is in the mountain that falls under the responsibility of the 9th villager team in Leigongzui Village, Baiyun Township, Shimen County, Hunan Province. Because of disputes over the ownership of the quarry, operation in this place that has gone on for twelve years was forced to stop in November 2005…Villagers of the 9th team started to take actions to protect their rights…At the villagers’ strong request, officials from the township government came to Leigongzui Village to work out a solution to the issue…The villagers’ efforts have paid off: the quarry that has been put out of operation for three months now starts running again!”
Our Village Committee
Concept and Camera: Fu Jiachong
Editing: Qiu Qian
Synopsis
The filmmaker is the Party secretary of his village. He is also the director of the village committee. He himself appears in front of the camera at the beginning of the film: we see him open the camera lens cap, adjust the frame, and then walk to the podium in the village committee office, starting to introduce himself.
Then he interviews other members of the village committee: the vice-director, the accountant, the director of women’s affairs, etc., asking them to introduce themselves and explain their work in front of the camera. Then they go together to work on the spot in the village elementary school, trying to find a solution to the problem of the dangerously decrepit classroom. Then they convene a meeting with villager representatives to discuss the school’s problem.
Allocation of Land
Concept and Camera: Wang Wei
Editing: Li Haihan
Synopsis
The film starts with the filmmaker himself seen squatting in front of the camera. We can tell that the camera is placed on a small hill next to a road and beyond the road we can see a village that is like any other villages on the Jiaodong Plain. This is how the filmmaker Wang Wei introduces the village behind him: “This is the village where I live. It has a population of 440, and has about 1,000 mu (about 166 acres) of viable land. It is a very poor place, and because of the poverty there are tons of bachelors who have no hope of getting wives…” As he talk, he is constantly interrupted by the honing traffic of trucks and tractors on the road behind him.
Did You Go Back for the Election?
Concept/Camera/Editing: Yi Chujian
Synopsis
The filmmaker Yi Chujian is a twenty-five-year-old peasant who comes to work in the city. Like many others like him who are called “peasant workers” or “migrant workers,” he has been away from his home village for quite a few years. Yi’s job in the city is shooting wedding videos. In this documentary, he films his fellow villagers who are of his age and who have also left home to find a living in the city of Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. They have worked in the city for a few years, running a photo shop or a home decoration shop, selling computer softwares, or working as a cook. Yi’s question for them is “Did you go back for the election?” Their answers are unanimously “No.” Why? “Because no one has told me about the election.” Or “I’m too busy.” Or “My parents filled out the voting ballots for me.” Or “The election really has nothing to do with me. I don’t care who is elected.”
Public Screenings
Completed or planned as of December, 2006
Events Venue Time (Year 2006) Target Audience
Villagers’ Documentary Workshop Caochangdi Workstation, Beijing February filmmakers, artists
U.S. university tour New York University
Yale University
Columbia University
University of Notre Dame March –April university researchers, students, artists, general public
Hong Kong International Film Festival Hong Kong April film festival participants, general public
International Conference on Village Governance Beijing April Chinese government officials, Chinese and overseas researchers on local governance
Cherry Lane Movies screenings Beijing April general public
Singapore International Film Festival Singapore April film festival participants, general public
Visions du Reel Nyon, Switzerland April film festival participants, general public
Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, Germany May general public
Goteborg Theater/Dance Festival Goteborg, Sweden August general public
Zuercher Theater Spektakel Zurich, Switzerland August general public
The U.K university tour Cambridge University Leeds University
Oxford University
Cardiff University October university researchers, students, artists, general public
VIENNALE,Vienna International Film Festival October film festival participants, general public
International Conference on Visual Anthropology
Guangzhou, China November university researchers, scholar, students, artists, general public
IDFA, international documentary film festival, Amsterdam Amsterdam December film festival participants, general public