Wu Wenguang
Wu Wenguang was born in 1956 in Yunnan Province in southwest China. After graduating from high school in 1974, Wu was sent to the countryside where he worked as a farmer for a year and as an elementary school teacher for three years. From 1978 to 1982 he studied Chinese literature in Yunnan University. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree, Wu taught at a junior high school for three years. He was then a journalist for a TV station for another three years. In 1988 Wu left television and moved to Beijing to be an independent documentary filmmaker, freelance writer and creator and producer of Living Dance Studio, a dance performance group. In 2005 Wu co-founded the independent art space Caochangdi Workstation (CCD Workstation) with his partner Wen Hui. He is the curator of the annual film and dance festivals Crossing Festival and May Festival. He is also the curator of the China Village Documentary Project, which began in 2005. His other films are: Bumming in Beijing (1990), At Home in The World (1995), Dance With Farm Workers (2001), Jiang Hu: Life on the Road (1999), You Are Called Outlander (2003), Fuck Cinema (2005), Bare Your Stuff (2010), Treatment (2010).
Books:
The Scene of the Revolution, 1966 (1994)
Bumming in Beijing (1995)
Report on Jiang Hu ( 2001)
A Camera likes own eyes (2001)
Document (as the editor-in-chief, three volumes, published from 2000 to 2005 )
Activities:
co-founded the independent art monthly magazine Next Wave, 2001.
curator of Chinese contemporary art event Public Space & Personal Eyes: New Vision from China, in Kampnagel, Hamburg, in October, 2003.
curator of Video Forum: Documentary-Private Language and Performance Space in Dashanzi International Art Festival in Beijing, 2005.
co-founded the independent art space Caochangdi Workstation with Wen Hui, 2005.
curator of Performance Festival Crossing, 2005.
curator of May Art Festival, Caochangdi Workstation, 2006.
curator of the China Village Documentary Project, 2005.
Synopsis:
Five former red guards recall the culture revolution that took place in China in the 1960s.
Awards:
Winner of the Ogawa Shinzuke Award, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan, 1993
Winner of Best Film Award at Taiwan Film Festival, Taiwan, 1993
Screenings:
Yamagata...
Synopsis:
This film picks up with the five artists featured in Wu’s previous film, Bumming in Beijing. The film was shot between 1993 and 1995. In the five years since they appeared in Bumming in Beijing, the five artists have scattered to the four corners of the world. The film marks the changes in their lives and the anxieties, cont...
Filmmaker’s Words:
This film is about how I met and became entangled with some villagers who started making films. I have been exploring the personal documentary, and I’ve made this film in the first person, a direct line from me to the audience. It uses footage of the Villager Documentary Project taken between 2005 and ...
Synopsis:
The film is an account of the wanderings of five young artists who recently came to Beijing from the provinces. In order to pursue their own artistic dreams they rejected the state-assigned jobs and led a roomer’s life in Beijing, without a fixed income or the security of a home. The film was shot over two years. By the end ...
Synopsis:
Dance with Farm Workers is a documentary about an avant-garde dance performance of the same name. The performance featured thirty Beijing farm workers from the poorer regions of Sichuan Province. Rehearsals and the performance took place in the production hall of a former textile factory that was tagged for demolition. T...
Synopsis:
This documentary shows how young people try to realize their dreams or find fame through the film industry. A central characters is Wang, a 28 year-old man from the countryside. His love for the cinema brought him to Beijing but all he can do is line up outside the gate of a film studio every day in hopes of la...
Synopsis:
Directly translated, “jiang hu” means “river” or “lake.” In Chinese it refers to life away from home or being “on the road.” This film is about the story of a traveling song and dance troupe of farmers. The boss is Old Liu. He got his two sons, their girlfriends and some young farmers to join and bo...
Filmmaker’s Words:
This film came out of a desire to memorialize and explore my deep feelings for my mother, who passed away in 2007. My thoughts were constantly shifting and changing during this process. While sorting through footage that I filmed over a twelve-year period, I saw subtleties that I had previously overlooked,...
Synopsis:
This film follows the life of migrant workers in Beijing. It explores the experiences of these “outlanders” and how it is to live far from home in the big city. About the Filmmaker:
Wu Wenguang was born in 1956 in Yunnan Province in southwest China. After graduating from high school in 197...