East Asian film collection housed in UCSD Library. Please see the title list in Roger (UCSD library catalog).
Underground Films/Independent Films housed in UCSD Library. Please see the title list in Roger (UCSD library catalog).
Disturbing the Peace (老媽蹄花) by
On the afternoon of May 12, 2008, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Wenchuan County in northern Sichuan Province, devastating a vast area of mountainous terrain and killing some 70,000 people, including thousands of children who were in school when it hit. Around the country, concerned citizens began to question why the government-built school buildings collapsed so easily, burying thousands of children alive, when other edifices had withstood the strike. In response to suspicion that corruption had resulted in deficient construction of the schools, the government concealed information and refused to release the number and names of the deceased students. Activist Tan Zuoren was arrested for investigating the deaths and charged with inciting subversion of state power. Ai Weiwei, who was also researching the situation and would eventually publish the full roster of names on his blog, was invited to testify at Tan’s trial in Chengdu. As soon as Ai and his group arrived, they were followed and filmed. This harassment culminated with the police breaking into Ai’s hotel room and beating him, causing cranial trauma. This film records Ai and his lawyers as they repeatedly travel to Chengdu to seek an explanation from the authorities. The documentary exposes the naked violence of the relationship among the people, the law, and its enforcers
Nightingale, Not the Only Voice (夜鶯不是唯一的歌喉) by
Originally produced by Tang Danhong in 2000
Summary This documentary follows the lives of three artists, including the film’s director, on their shared journey through real and psychological oppression to self-discovery. Tang Danhong examines her past—particularly her relationship with her parents—and looks at the painful, formative moments that inform her current psychological state, her life, and her art. "*In this film Tang Danhong explores the obstacles inherent to the artistic expression of one’s inner world. As the three artists wrestle with one another’s claims on truth, the question remains whether their work dispels the inner crises they face, or simply provides another version of reality. Even exchanges between Tang and her parents are problematic; her father no longer recalls the things she remembers from her childhood, things that influenced her entire life. Tang’s film is quite distinctive in how she explores individual psychology.*" – ***Ai Weiwei***
Self-portrait : dancing at 47 KM (自畫像：47公里跳舞) by
This is director's 2nd "self-portrait" in a village named "47 KM". This village is located 47 KM from Suizhou, Hubei Province, where her father was born. He left the village when he was 20, but his father, her grandfather, still lives there. In the winter of 2012, through her participation in the "Folk Memory Project", she went back to the village to continue her interview with the elders who lived through the Great Famine during 1959-1961. She also asked the villagers to donate money for erecting a monument for those who passed away during the Great Famines
The Starving Village (飢餓的村子) by
Zou Xueping's film records the last two years of her grandmother's life, as well as the stories of fifteen other elderly people who lived through the Great Famine, 1959-1961
Bumming in Beijing : The last dreamers (流浪北京) by
A documentary based on five young artists' experiences in Beijing in the 1980s. After graduating from college, they leave their officially assigned jobs and come to Beijing to search for their dreams
No.16 Barkhor South Street (八廓南街16號) by
This film records the routine work of a neighborhood government in central Lhasa, Tibet
Though I was Dead (我雖死去) by
Bian Zhongyun, Vice Principal of the Girls High School affiliated to Beijing Normal University, was tortured to death in 1966. She was believed to be the first victim among the teachers killed by their students during the "Red August" of 1966 as the Cultural Revolution began in Mainland China. The film depicts the event and demonstrates how the family members, students and colleagues of Bian experienced the terror
Petition (上訪) by
This is a documentary on a place around the Beijing South Railway Station where people all over China come to wait for their petitions to be heard after having exhausted their local appeals. Many of the people waiting in this place have been trying for years to right wrongs that had been done in the past
The Road (大路朝天) by
A highway is waiting to go through a quiet village in Hunan, a province in central China where Chairman Mao was from. Due to the high cost of construction, numbers of migrants who live on road work and various of construction machines rush to here like the tide. In the following four years, no matter cold or hot, they will root in this strange place for interests. They will pay sweat and blood, even their lives. With their arrival, local village and peasants are forced to change their lives: land acquisition, house relocation, temple reconstruction, as well as subtle and enduring impulsion to people and morality. Road workers and local people, as two different groups, are closely connected in life and feat. They impact each other, some happy, some sad, some bitter, some sweet. However with the extension of the high way and finally to the end of the project, many hidden interest lines and hidden rules about road construction of the nation are unveiled, together with the shocking truth and emerging secrets
Our Children (我們的娃娃) by
The documentary focuses on the experiences of parents whose children were killed when their schools collapsed during the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province, China, in 2008, and includes commentary and perspectives on the tragedy from a wide array of sources
1428 by
Documentary on the 8.0 earthquake that shook Sichuan Province in China on May 12, 2008 at 14:28
Fortune Teller (算命) by
Li Baicheng is a traditional Chinese fortune teller. He lives in a village not far from Beijing with his wife, Shi Zhenzhu, a deaf person. Li takes gentle, patient care of her after rescuing her from her own family's mistreatment. He makes his living as a traditional teller of fortunes, and many of his customers are prostitutes who seek advice in dealing with their problems. A government anti-prostitution campaign and a bitterly cold winter convince the couple to return to their hometown of Qinglong, where they visit Pearl's brother and stay at Li's old family home. By early spring, they are on the road again, traveling to a temple fair where they hope their luck will take a turn for the better
Aoluguya (敖鲁古雅) by
Aoluguya is a place name, in the Xing'an Mountain of northern China, where is the traditional habitat for the Ewenkizu people who are living a hunting and nomadic life. They cannot live as a traditional way today. The government has built the new home for them and hunting is banned. Ewenkizu people's traditional nomadic life has changed
I Wish I Know (海上傳奇) by
An official selection for the Un Certain Regard category of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, I Wish I Knew explores the history of the ever-evolving Chinese metropolis through interviews with 18 persons of varying degrees of connection with the city. Like the chapters of a novel, their personal stories together form a bigger picture of the changes of Shanghai from the 1930s to the present day. These people include descendants of legendary figures like Zhang Xinyi (Zeng Guofan's great-granddaughter), Fei Mingyi (Fei Mu's daughter), Du Meiru (Du Yuesheng's daughter), and contemporary luminaries like director Hou Hsiao Hsien, Spring in a Small Town actress Wei Wei, singer Rebecca Pan, painter Chen Danqing, and writer Han Han. Their stories of rebels and revolution, soldiers and war, gangsters and assassination, artists and romance are neatly linked together by an anonymous character portrayed by Jia's regular actress Zhao Tao
San Yuan Li (三元里) by
Sanyuanli, a collaborative work by U-tḧque members, a case study of a typical village-amid-the-city phenomenon in the process of the urbanization of Guangzhou. The crew penetrates San Yuan Li Village as "City Flaneur," rethinking back into the depth of its history, the confrontation and reconciliation between the process of modernization, and the patriarchal clan system, as well as the rural community system in Guangdong
Tiexi District: West of the Tracks (鐵西區) by
Documentary about the Tiexi District, established in 1934 and expanded during the 1950s to become China's largest industrialised zone. The area is now in decline. The film aims to be a portrait of the place and its people
Small Talk (日常對話) by
"Documentary feature film in which the director Huang Hui-chen attempts to reveal and reconcile a painful past shared between herself and her mother A-nu, a lesbian Taoist priestess"--Description from Wikipedia, viewed Feb. 2, 2018
Fuck Cinema (操他媽的電影) by
Wang is an eager young man with drive, determination, and a hand-scrawled script; the only problem is that he's one of thousands like him. The director tags along as Wang hectically scrambles from meeting to meeting, discovering that the Chinese film industry, like Hollywood, or any other industry, has its share of roadblocks, bad ideas, and windbags
Viva Tonal – The Dance Age (跳舞時代) by
Documentary about popular music in Taiwan in the 1930s, a period known as "the dance age."
La Moulin (日曜日式散步者) by
"It was when Taiwan was in a stable period of cultural assimilation during the past forty years of Japanese colonial rule that the country's first modern literature group, Le Moulin Poetry Society, arose in the 1930s, with their poetic protest against the colonial power's cultural superiority. The name reflected the group's orientation towards the West while especially strongly influenced by France. Regarding the Surrealists as their absolute role models, Le Moulin poets composed poetry in an uncompromising and aesthetically sophisticated style to confront the turbulent era they lived in. Le Moulin not only tries to record a historical period that paved the way for a new freedom and self-awareness, but also to explore how Asian Modernist writers reinvent Modernism through encountering foreign culture and their contemplation upon identities"--Container
Voices of Orchid Island (兰屿观点) by
Looks at the Yami people on Lan Island, Taiwan. Explores their social values, religious beliefs and traditional life, and how these change in face with the conflicting values of the modern world
My Fancy High Heels (我爱高跟鞋) by
Looks behind the scenes of the fashion industry including how the animals are treated that provide the leather for shoes, following the making of a pair of high heeled shoes from the farm where the cow was raised to the rich, American that ultimately purchases the shoes
A Chronicle of My Cultural Revolution (我的文革编年史) by
Using a combination of historical photos, film clips, and interviews, author Xu Xing narrates chronologically his personal experiences and interweaves some historical events that happened to his generation during the ten years of the Cultural Revolution
