This film was selected by ken berthel,assistant professor of chinese, whittier college. His 2011 film, beijing besieged by waste, was the result of a threeyear odyssey documenting unregulated landfills on the outskirts of the capital. He started investigating the landfill pollution around beijing in 2008. Not rated 1h 26min documentary, news 29 january 2012 sweden. Why i chose this film beijing besieged by waste exposes the largely hidden and unknown dark side of the glamour, bright lights and and architectural brilliance of rapidly developing beijing as it becomes an international city. Outstanding film projects selected will be fully linked with elements of the film industry chain to incubate excellent film works with market potential. Awardwinning photographer wang jiuliang travels to over five hundred of beijing s landfills in this documentary. Beijing film festival finds new film projectsbeijing. From solstice to solstice, from pole to pole, from storm to storm, we watch earths beauty and fragility, weathers wonders, forces, and disasters. The point here is that beijing is a particularly polluted city.
Beijing besieged by waste director interview beijing besieged by waste will screen at the association for asian studies aas film expo, friday march 16 2012 in the sheraton centre toronto, as part of the aas annual meeting. Plastic china documentary focuses on human impact of. Photographer zooms in on beijings waste environment. Beijing besieged by waste 2012 beijing besieged by. The scenes of people and sheep grazing through the piles of garbage, and of trucks apparently dumping whatever they like with no authorities in sight, were a shock. Beijing appears as a large modern city, rich in history and culture, with clean. Additional reporting by amelia hong time out presents a free screening of beijing besieged by waste. He produced two critically acclaimed documentaries that made him an authority on the subject. Wang jiuliang is a 34yearold photographer who spent all of. Wang graduated from communication university of china, school of cinematic arts in 2007. We are on a square a street a sidewalk the highway apartments office buildings garbage arrives by truck and motorcycle. Despite these impediments, the stream of independent documentaries continues, albeit at a slightly reduced rate over the past year. Wang jiuliangs beijing besieged by waste series, with its images that stir a sense of guilt deep in our stomachs, is representative of this changing course of environmental activism.
Photographer wang jiu liang travels to more than 500 landfills, fearlessly documenting beijings. The most powerful documentary film i have seen recently is beijing besieged by waste, directed by the brilliantly gifted photographer wang jiuliang. Beijing besieged by waste 6 14 garbage collection and activity at the landfill, night time in a landfill, a man gathers paper, puts it on his wagon. The section has always been one of the key parts that receive much attention in film market. Shocked by what he had found, wang developed his project into a powerful documentary film called weicheng laji beijing besieged by waste, released in 2011 and screening at this years melbourne international film festival as part of the street level visions. Eventually, the premier, wen jiabao, took action and initiated a series of policies on waste disposal, beijing besieged by waste serves as an example of the power of cinematic reportage in china today. Shocked by what he had found, wang developed his project into a powerful documentary film called weicheng laji beijing besieged by waste. Theres novelty but not a lot of substance to jiuliang wangs documentary plastic china, which serves as a thematic sequel of sorts to his 2011 beijing besieged by waste. Beijing besieged by garbage in the summer of 2008, i returned to my hometown, a small rural village, to take photographs for a project on chinese folk religions.
In 2011, wang released his first documentary, entitled beijing besieged by. Wang jiuliangs documentary plastic china 2016, 82 min. Shot with both a photographers eye for aesthetics, and an activists commitment to social change, the film is a striking reminder of the inextricability of society and its trash. Photographer wang jiuliang travels to more than 500 landfills, fearlessly documenting beijing s unholy cycle of consumption through poignant observational visits with the scavengers who live and work.
Last year, i had a series of documentaries focusing on urban china. Film lists for water, environment, urbanization in china and india background by 2015, 16 of the worlds 23 megacities cities with more than 10 million people will be located in asia. Director of the awardwinning documentary film beijing besieged by waste, wang jiuliang graduated from the school of cinematic arts of the communication university of china in 2007. Kanak mani dixit, the founder of film southasia based in kathmandu, learned about the series and was very impressed with the films. Bernardo bertolucci gives us another longwinded look into the lives of people youll never see in reallife with besieged, a fable about a fainting pianist thewlis who falls madly in love with his exiled african housekeeper newton. Menaced by the boxers, an antichristian, antiforeign peasant movement, 900 soldiers, marines, and civilians, largely from europe, japan, and the united states, and about 2,800 chinese christians took refuge in the peking legation quarter.
His first, beijing besieged by waste, released in 2010, explored the garbage dumps encircling chinas capital. For one year we look through the eyes of the distant observer. Beijing besieged by waste is a stirring call to action before out planet is consumed by garbage. His awardwinning film, beijing besieged by waste 2011, provoked intense public discussion and is widely credited with having prodded the beijing municipal government into allocating 10 billion rmb u. From 2007 to 2008, he finished a set of photography work about chinese traditional superstitions. How china became the worlds junkyard capital citylab. Since 2008, he has been engaged in an investigation of the garbage crisis in beijing involving more than 460 landfills around the city and 10,000 photographs. Beijing besieged by waste while chinas economic ascent commands global attention, less light has been shed upon the monumental problem of waste spawned by a burgeoning population, booming industry and insatiable urban growth. As director wang jiuliang said in the film beijing besieged by waste, if you take the environmental costs of recycling into account, you realize its not all cheap.
Beijing besieged by waste film screening director wang jiuliang. Beijing, besieged by waste is a documentary directed by wang jiuliang. Beijing besieged by waste, his first documentary released in 2011, focused on the heaps of waste piled up around chinas capital. Bernardo bertoluccis besieged is a movie about whether two people with nothing in common, who have no meaningful conversations, will have sexeven if that means dismissing everything we have learned about the woman. Film lists for water, environment, urbanization in china and. Asia in current motion presented at the association for asian studies annual conference, on march 1518, 2012 in toronto. The photographerturneddirectors debut documentary, 2011s beijing besieged by waste, discovered the citysized hills of garbage trucked to the outskirts of the.
Director of awardwinning and impactful documentary film beijing besieged by waste, wang graduated from communication university of china, school of cinematic arts in 2007. This was a riveting documentary on the explosion of landfills in beijing s suburbs. The siege of the international legations occurred in the summer of 1900 in peking today beijing, the capital of the qing empire, during the boxer rebellion. Build a machine which can crush windmills, wipe out battalions of brave soldiers and transport valuable resources. Rubble and cement discarded at a construction site after the completion of the beijingtianjin intercity railway. Pages in category films set in beijing the following 117 pages are in this category, out of 117 total. The most recent film in the miff program, wang jiuliangs weicheng laji beijing besieged by waste, 2011, employs a more journalistic style to document the scandalous state of beijings waste disposal. From 2008 to 2010, photographer wang jiuliang visited more than 460 landfills in the suburbs of beijing, and took over 5,000 pictures. It was made by an awardwinning local documentary maker and photographer, wang jiuliang. Director of the awardwinning and impactful documentary film beijing besieged by waste, jiuliang wang graduated from the communication university of china, school of cinematic arts in 2007. While chinas rise, and its immense challenges, commands world attention, less light has been shed upon the colossal problem of waste generated by a burgeoning population, expanding industry, and rapacious urban growth.
Mutations et defis urbains en milieu rural by marlene leroux, epfl phd, architect, urban planner and one of the two complementary halves of atelier archiplein, provides unpublished and valuable information on the current process of massive urbanization of chinas rural territories, 10 years after the launch of the building a new socialist countryside. Wang jing in the summer of 2008, i returned to my hometown, a small rural village, to take photographs for a project on chinese folk religions. Aug 26, 2011 beijing beseiged by waste trailer with english subtitles filmmaker. This film is appropriate for high school and college level students.
Before the films release, few chinese thought about where the waste went. All your garbage is ruining this little girls life inverse. Why even china wont take our trash anymore link tv. Photographer wang jiuliang turns his lens upon the grim spectacle of garbage, excrement, refuse, and wreckage heaped upon the landscape that. From 2008 to 2011 photographer and filmmaker wang jiuliang documented over 460 landfills around beijing, culminating in the awardwinning film beijing besieged by waste 2011 and prompting the beijing municipal government to invest 10 billion rmb to regulate the waste disposal industry. Director of awardwinning and impactful documentary film beijing besieged by waste. Before then, few chinese thought about where the waste went.
In beijing besieged by waste, following on the heels of his eyeopening art exhibition, wang assembles jawdropping photos, poignant observational. He then filmed plastic china, a documentary that earned him the 2016 idfa special jury award for first appearance, an award for new filmmakers from the international documentary film festival of amsterdam. The showing of this film will be followed by an informal gettogether and discussion at haakon hall restaurant, amsterdam avenue between 118th and 119th streets the tragic story of beijing besieged by landfills director. This ancient city is rich in history and culture, with clean streets. The reason i believe that plastic china is a better film is because it focuses more closely and revealingly on the people working the trash.
Beijing besieged by waste accompanies a larger photography project. Film screening at the asia society, 725 park avenue, 70th street, new york, ny 10021 wang jiuliang 2011. Apr 28, 2017 chinas environmental woes, in films that go viral, then vanish. Politics of waste production and distribution in beijing, and screening of wang jiuliangs documentary film beijing besieged by waste, will be held on monday, april 11. Wang and the films producing companies spent their own money to send.
Mandarin chinese with english subtitles free and open to the public. It investigates the ways in which places of waste, human beings, and animals are figured in the film, and the ecological implications that the discourse of waste has on a society marked by raging urbanization and rampant commercialization. Beijing besieged by waste with a population of around 20 million and growing, beijing s residents produce unfathomable amounts of waste every day. In the first class cabin, youre given a pair of disposable slippers. Rubble and cement discarded at a construction site after the completion of the beijing tianjin intercity railway.
China relations and new york state council on the arts. On tuesday, the project pitches road show section of the festival was held in beijing. I have curated some film series featuring independent chinese films at the asia society new york. A flight from shanghai to beijing is a little over an hour. An artists talk with photographer wang jiuliang will be held on tuesday, april 12, at 4 p. The ground water is polluted, the air is polluted and apparently some of the food is polluted. Introduced to china in the late 20th century, the development of the publicprivate partnership ppp model has reached an unprecedented peak over the last four years. Gong focuses on the concepts of place, misplacement. Besiege is a physics based building game set in medieval times. Oscars best picture winners golden globes emmys san diego comic con new york comic con sundance toronto intl film festival awards central festival central. The publicprivate partnership model, a new trend in chinas. Wang jiuliang s beijing besieged by waste series, with its images that stir a sense of guilt deep in our stomachs, is representative of this changing course of environmental activism.
Awardwinning photographer wang jiuliang focuses his lens upon the grim spectacle of waste, excrement, detritus, and rubble unceremoniously piled upon the land surrounding the chinas olympic city, capital, and megalopolis, beijing. Beijing besieged by waste like new york and mexico city, beijing faces serious challenges in managing urban waste. Afghan perspectives in film when china met africa subverses china in mozambique beijing besieged by waste shielding the mountains lessons of the loess. Beijing besieged by waste environmental film festival. Sep 28, 2011 in beijing besieged by waste, following on the heels of his eyeopening art exhibition, wang assembles jawdropping photos, poignant observational visits with the scavengers who live and work in. Many of the images in your first film beijing besieged by garbage are impressive and. A portrait of poverty, ambition and hope set in a world of waste. Besieged was an useless combination of political and romantic drama, wandering back and forth between the two leads that never really had reached each other. Land shortage in beijing adds to problem of disposing citys trash. In an unexpected turn of events and one which helps to nuance stereotypes of a chinese government deaf to the needs of its people the film was included in an internal party report by the xinhua media agency and later watched by premier wen jiabao. Between 2008 and 2010, photographer and filmmaker wang jiuliang traveled to hundreds of legal and illegal landfills around the capital city to document the less.
In 20072008, he completed a series of photographs about chinese traditional folk religion. The film director traveled 15k km over two years in 16k km2 large beijing municipality to film and photograph the citys shameful waste management and the downside of capitalist consumerism within a totalitarian regime. Electronic waste transactions began in the eastern coastal areas of china and enabled local farmers to get rich quickly. This chinese filmmaker cant stop talking trash on vimeo. Additional reporting by amelia hong time out presents a free screening of beijing besieged by waste at lola on. I needed to find particularly clean natural environments to use as backgrounds for the photographs. The documentaries plastic china and beijing besieged by waste told the cruel truth about garbage in china, and it is a story that revealed the poverty and humanity. It portrays the lives of workers in an unnamed chinese town. And when the wasteland of urban china is thus revealed, we start to wonder whether the expansion of consumerism in china is really the key to a better future. In 2011, he finished beijing besieged by waste, a set of photography work and a documentary with. It is a story about rubbish, landfills, and dumpsites. Like the directors of waste land, wang trains his lens on the garbage scavengers who find means of meager sustenance within mounds of detritus. Before the film s release, few chinese thought about where the waste went. With the 2014 world cup and the olympics ahead, this is an essential film for understanding a country that is in the world spotlight.
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