Reservation and Contact: Miriam Yang
cefc@cefc.com.hk / tel: 2876 6910
Organizers:
Department of Comparative Literature
and French Centre for Research on Contemporary
China (CEFC)
Supported by
the ANR-RGC project New Approaches to the Mao Era (CEFC – HKU).
Participants:
Wu Wenguang, Zou Xueping, Luo Bing, Zhang Mengqi
Panelists:
Esther Yau (HKU), Judith Pernin (CEFC), Sebastian Veg (CEFC/HKU)
Languages:
Mandarin (and some English)
Abstract:
Wu Wenguang, a veteran of independent documentary in China, launched his Folk Memory Project in 2010. Since then, he and a group of young filmmakers in Caochangdi Workstation have been traveling to their home villages across China to find traces, through oral history interviews, of the memory of the Great Famine of 1959-1961. Through documentary films, oral history archives, and theatre performances, they have tried to locate and preserve another narrative of this historical period than the one recorded in history books.
There will be a film screening and Q&A session with the director and other members of Caochangdi Workstation. This will be followed by a panel discussion devoted to the question of unofficial memory, everyday history, documentary film activism, and the performance of memory.
Film Screening:
Directed, Photographed, edited by: Luo Bing
English subtitles translated by Xu Yaping; Proofing: Odette Scott
77 min. /2012
(Screened: China Independent Film Festival, Nanjing, China, 2012, Yunfest,
Kunming, 2013)
Filmmaker’s words:
This film is the sequel to my first one, “Luo Village: Me and Ren Dingqi” (Hong Kong Chinese Documentary Festival 2013). Its title “Pitiless Earth and Sky” comes from Ren Dingqi’s memoir. He spent ten years on this memoir, documenting bone-deep experiences of Land Reform, The Great Leap Forward, the Three Years of Famine, and the Cultural Revolution… My film attempts a reading of his book to try to witness this history once more. At the same time, as I tried to open this memoir before his fellow villagers, I encountered all sorts of unexpected responses, and found myself investigating the links between past and present and whether or not this village is still a “pitiless earth and sky.”
Director’s biography:
Tentative schedule:
For other events organized in Hong Kong, see: http://www.hkindieff.hk/HK_Folk_Memory.html
ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME!
Seats are limited. Please confirm your attendance.
