ACF
Asian Cinema Fund
Asian Network of Documentary(AND) Fund
2006 Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund
LIST Bingai
| Category | PUFS Fund |
|---|---|
| Project | Bingai |
| Director | Yan FENG |
| Country | China |
| Director's Profile | After studying Japanese Literature in China, FENG went to Japan in 1988 and entered the doctorate course in Economics at Kyoto University. At the 1993 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, she discovered a book by the renowned Japanese documentary filmmaker Ogawa Shinsuke, "Eiga o toru (Harvesting Films)". Soon after, she translated it into Chinese and published it in Taiwan. Inspired by the experience, she joined a cooperative of free-lance Asian journalists, Asia Press International, in 1994 and for the first time learned about cinematography and video journalism. Consequently, she began making documentaries about rural China in 1994. Since then, she has made numerous journalistic reports for television including I Want to Go to School. BINGAI is one part of her documentary project called Women of Changjiang River series which was shot from 1994 and is in post-production from 2003. It is scheduled for release in 2007. |
- Synopsis
- With the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, now under construction, 1.13 million people along the Yangtze River will have been dislocated. The majority of them are farmers. BINGAI features one woman farmer who refuses to move away from her village. The audience will follow her seven-year struggle with officials who pressure her to relocate, while a strong devotion to her land compels her to remain in the place she calls home.
- Director's Note
- I am not making this documentary to promote environmental causes or to investigate human rights issues. My characters must be put in a larger picture, in the context of a long history as lengthy as the Yangtse River. Their lives are indeed twisted by circumstances often beyond their control and strongly affected by the hands of authorities. Nevertheless they uphold a sense of pride, a pride for values which will never be swept away by the times - love for the family, compassion for the weak, true friendship, and traditional morals. I believe it is such pride that enables these women to bravely take their steps under the burden of China′s past destiny, which reflects humankind′s loss in its continuous history of progress.
- Festivals
-
2007 Busan International Film Festival - Wide Angle
2007 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival - Shinsuke Ogawa Award
2008 Punto de Vista - Documentary Film Festival of Navarra - First Prize for the Best Film
2008 Taiwan International Documentary Festival
- Still Cut
-
