by Lu Chen
Zhao Dayong’s Ghost Town is about alienation and distance, about aimless wanderers and broken hearts, yet it is shot with the tenderness of a root-seeking journey. In this three-hour documentary, the meditative rhythm parallels the pace of life depicted. The scale of screen time embodies the scale of lost history the film tries to capture through extraordinary visual sensitivity.
Hammer to Nail, a pioneering online journal about ambitious films, has just published Ghost Town director Zhao Dayong’s interview with Nelson Kim, two days after the New York Film Festival screening.
In the conversation, Zhao discussed the situation of independent filmmaking in China, his experiences in painting, installation, and performance art and their influence on his later choice in filmmaking, as well as his recent project about the underground Nigerian Christian community in Guangzhou.
Concerning the three-part structure of the film, Zhao insisted that the film was less a quote unquote documentary than a reflection of his experience living in the community, presented from a “clear, subjective concept” of him. Zhao also expressed his wish for Chinese independent filmmakers to “be persistent, to insist on making good quality films.”
The complete interview can be accessed here.
If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that the dGenerate Films team had been working hard in anticipation of last Sunday’s international premiere of Zhao Dayong’s Ghost Town. It all paid off, as Ghost Town packed the house and generated extended applause for its depiction of a mountainous village in slow decay.
To all of you in attendance, thanks for coming out. Your support has helped put the newest vanguard of Chinese independent filmmaking on the map. If you feel Ghost Town deserves to be seen by a wider audience, whether on the big or small screen, please get in touch with us or pass the word to your fellow film enthusiasts, professors, programmers, curators, critics, and acquisition colleagues.
Here are some photos from both the screening as well as the post-screening reception at Bamboo 52.
I received the following message from Chris Berry, who had recently watched the film Ghost Town by Zhao Dayong, which will have its international premiere at the 2009 New York Film Festival. In these remarks, he places the film within the context of the Chinese independent documentary movement. (For more information, see CinemaTalk interviews with Chris Berry and China documentary scholar Lu Xinyu.)
I finished watching Ghost Town last night. It’s a very fine film indeed. One of the reviews mentioned Jia Zhangke. But I immediately thought of Wang Bing. The three-part structure, the epic historical theme with larger social implications, the patient observational filmmaking, the people speaking to camera but the filmmaker’s own absence, all these things made me think of Wang Bing. And like his films, it has a strong sense of historical consciousness, an eye for unique material, and a real sympathy for the people in the film and their tough lives. It’s a testament to the continuing strength of the Chinese documentary movement.
Ghost Town, Zhao Dayong’s 2008 documentary about the residents of the Southwest Chinese town Zhiziluo, makes its International Premiere this Sunday at the New York Film Festival. Film critics who attended the press screening have already given the film high marks. Here are some highlights:
“Directed with scrupulous attention to detail by Zhao Dayong.” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times, “The Serious Regard for Cinema”
“One of the fest’s prime discoveries” – Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York, “NYFF Top Picks”
“Give Ghost Town 15 minutes, and you won’t be able to shut it off… as compelling as any in the festival.” – J. Hoberman, Village Voice, “Five Must-See Films From the NYFF”
“A heavyweight… It sure disproves one villager’s quip, cheekily placed near the beginning of the doc: ‘Go ahead and film, but there’s nothing worth filming here!’” – Nicolas Rapold, Village Voice, “NYFF: This Year’s Documentaries”
“3 out of 4 stars! Dayong’s direction exudes compassionate intimacy with regard to both individuals and spaces.” – Nick Schager, Slant Magazine, “Review: Ghost Town”
“One of the most heartbreaking films to yet emerge from China’s prolific documentary movement.” – Andrew Chan, Reverse Shot, “Ghost Town”
“So rich in detail and incident that when it ended… I felt as if I’d just returned from a week-long visit. Ghost Town casts a powerful spell.” – Nelson Kim, Hammer to Nail, “Must-Sees at the 47th NYFF“
“Hypnotic” – Vadim Rizov, GreenCine Daily, “NYFF ’09“
Just a final reminder that Ghost Town premieres Sunday at the New York Film Festival. Showtime is at 2:15pm. Get your tickets here! And don’t just take our word for it, see what Current TV had to say about it.
The screening is being co-sponsored by the fine folks at Stranger than Fiction, a documentary series at the IFC Center curated by Thom Powers. For the past ten years, STF has presented an eclectic mix of documentaries (followed by filmmaker discussions!), and has cemented its place as a gathering spot for New York’s independent film community. Thanks for supporting Ghost Town, STF!
dGenerate Films presents CinemaTalk, an ongoing series of conversations with esteemed scholars of Chinese cinema studies. These conversations are presented on this site in audio podcast and/or text format. They are intended to help the Chinese cinema studies community keep abreast of the latest work being done in the field, as well as to learn what recent Chinese films are catching the attention of others. This series reflects our mission to bring valuable resources and foster community around the field of Chinese film studies.
David Bandurski (photo by Bonnie Bandurski)
An award-winning journalist, David Bandurski is currently a writer and researcher for the China Media Project, a research program of the Journalism & Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. His writings have appeared in Far Eastern Economic Review, the Wall Street Journal, Index on Censorship, the South China Morning Post and other publications. He received a Human Rights Press Award in 2008 for an investigative piece for the Far Eastern Economic Review on China’s use of professional associations to enforce Internet censorship guidelines. David was also co-recipient of a Merit Prize in Commentary in 2007. Mr. Bandurski’s involvement with China’s nascent independent documentary scene began in 2005, as he made contact with several filmmakers while writing about the movement. Realizing the power of digital video technology, Mr. Bandurski decided to turn a planned long-form narrative article about the African community in Guangzhou into a documentary feature. This began a long and fruitful collaboration with Guangzhou-based filmmaker Zhao Dayong.
In this interview, dGenerate Films’ Kevin Lee talks to David Bandurski about his involvement with Ghost Town and director Zhao Dayong, the film’s reception both in China and abroad, and his ongoing work with the China Media Project.
Note: This interview was conducted with David via Skype. There are occasional moments of audio breakup. A full transcript follows after the break.
Play the Podcast (Time: 24:47)
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Download it here (right-click on the link, select “Save As”, file size: 11.3 MB)
The dGenerate team have been working feverishly in preparation for Zhao Dayong’s amazing documentary (and dGenerate title) Ghost Town‘s international premiere at the prestigious New York Film Festival. Ghost Town, the only Chinese film in this year’s festival, screens Sunday, September 27 at 2:15 at the Lincoln Center. We strongly advise you to get tickets in advance, as the NYFF screenings always sell out quick. Tickets go on sale this Sunday, September 13.
Jury members Dennis Lim and Scott Foundas had this to say about the film:
San Yuan Li (dir. Ou Ning, 2003)
What is a Chinese film? Ever since I’ve started living and working in Beijing over six years ago, most serious discussions about Chinese cinema ultimately come down to this elemental question, either in its descriptive mode (what defines a Chinese film?) or in its more urgently prescriptive version (what should a Chinese film be?). Often, it’s filmmakers themselves who seem most anxious about the issue. Behind it lie several subsidiary anxieties: “What do Westerners want from Chinese films?”, “What’s my role in Chinese society?”, “Are films art, or commerce, or politics?”
