By Isabella Tianzi Cai
Karamay (dir. Xu Xin)
Known as the “12/8/94 Incident,” a devastating fire broke out in the Karamay Friendship Theater in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, killing 323 people, 288 of whom were schoolchildren. Chinese director Xu Xin’s Karamay, which premiered at this year’s 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival, brings back these nearly erased memories of the past.
With little knowledge of the incident at the time it happened, Xu Xin expected the fire to be just another unwanted accident when he first started the project. However, in the making of the documentary, where he interviewed over 60 people related to the victims, Xu gained a much deeper understanding of the underlying tragedy. He tries to convey this agony, shooting in black-and-white with no music or voice-over throughout the film’s somber six-hour running time.
