Some Beginning, Some Continuing
written by Zhang Yaxuan
translated by Jeff Crosby

A total of fifteen films have been selected for the competition category of the Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival. These works hold within them the energy that have accumulated in Chinese documentary film over the past two years. It is not that each individual film is itself cutting edge, but together they have a testimonial power. In the face of these concrete films, use of the word "progress?is not at all unfounded.

Maybe the term "domestic (Chinese) documentary film?is a bit too broad and obscure a concept. But as for the Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival, it is almost self- evident that what has been excavated and gathered are those forces that have been scattered among the folk realm. That these works do exist in China as a fact attests that the most vibrant aspects of Chinese documentary films are those that were born and nurtured in that realm, rather than depending on some institution or some groups of career documentarians. And "that realm?are always some nameless, intangible, unimaginable and inconceivable definition of spheres; they are spread out along a large enough territory, and are tolerated in the omnipresent life. Whether due to curiosity, chance or some sense of responsibility, the camera has become immersed in the lives and behaviors of the people, and has grasped onto their very breath. These fifteen films just happen to have emerged at the same point in time. If we see them as a unified whole, then through them we can get a basic idea of the stage and level (including existing problems) to which domestic documentary films have reached. Because they are sufficient to disseminate strongly emotional renderings of the realities of society and man's survival in similar images of this time. They also extend upon the DV documentaries of the late nineties and the turn of the century: the most precious grassroots spirit.

Then what is the meaning of this word, "progress? Progress means an inheritance of the past and a move towards the future. It implies more than mere continuation, it also contains other threads, hinting at the possibilities of growth in even more directions. In this respect, these fifteen films are equipped with that type of power. The majority of the works, from Before the Flood and Floating Dust to Guirong Theater , The Man , Floating , In the Background and White Pagoda could all be examined under the strictest lens of realism, while they also embody an extension of that vision. If people get the feeling that this vision is widening, that's because the scenes being presented are constructed of more specific, partially realistic and much more deeply detailed narratives. But they haven't created another isolated world that exists beyond the average life experience; it's more like the parts of these experiences, just too trivial to be integrated into the Grand Discourses about the reality. Sometimes they have developed a different type of narrative for the same subject. This is the inclination of the documentary practices in this period. Perhaps it's lack in awareness but distinct enough.

Though not in the strictest sense, the films Between Life and Death , Blossoming in the Wind and Song of Nanlin could be considered ethnographic in nature. They have established the relation between documentary films, the land, and the way of life for those who live off of it. The first two films demonstrate that the traditional belief in religion or spirits is the most important organizing component of a way of life. Spiritual beliefs, however, are not what these films emphasize. They first and foremost set out to document the lives of the people living in these areas. This isn't ethnographic research either; it more resembles an expression of nostalgia for these declining or disappearing entities. The heavy emotions classify these films as poetry or song, though the poet or musician never appears or is heard from in the film. This depiction can also be applied to Crow in Winter, which filmed an ancient hamlet along the Beijing-Kowloon Railroad. If it wasn't the already non-existent hometown of the filmmaker, why would he be so enamored with every little aspect of the place? His vision has filled the film with a rarely seen mark of a filmmaker as a auteur.

A piece that requires special attention is Gai Shanxi and her Sisters . This is a historical testimonial based on the filmmaker's ten-year investigation and aide regarding the issue of comfort women. These old women are already in the twilight of their lives, and when they can finally utter their broken memories out in pieces, it is about the body. Their bodies, first humiliated then disgraced, carried the burden of shame for an entire nation, and this is one of the reasons that their stories can now be told. It is always the responsibility of documentary film to use fieldwork methods in unearthing history and connecting with memory. The body is taken as evidence, and the truth must be sought out of the forgotten and indifferent. But in the context of current Chinese image-making (or each every aspect of cultural manufacture), it's always relegated to the realm of the forgotten and the covered. In this sense, this documentary regarding the history of the War against Japanese Aggression would be expected an important beginning.