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- Between 1959 and 1961, more than 35 million people starved to death because of Mao's Great Leap Forward policies. To avoid censorship in China, this painful period is now euphemistically referred to as the "Three Years of Natural Disasters." This courageous oral history, directed by Zhang Mengqi, tells the story from the point of view of her grandfather's village, to which she returns every winter to interview survivors. Central are moving voice-overs from a grandmother who details harrowing pregnancies and lonely births during the Great Famine and her granddaughter, a migrant worker. In this agricultural village, the landscape is stark yet beautiful with plenty of room for contemplation. When a hand appears in front of the camera, Zhang transitions into delightfully playful territory, incorporating a uniquely participatory experience that extends to not-to-be-missed post-screening Q&As.
- In the winter marking 10 years since the director began filming her "47 KM" series, she tries to get a new building constructed in the village. The girls, who had thus far been the subjects of her films, take up the camera themselves, and begin recording scenes of the village.
- After Self-portrait at km 47 (Cinéma du réel 2012), Zhang Mengqi pursues her contributions to the Folk Memory Project, relentlessly questioning the survivors of the 1959-61 famine in her village, "47 kilometres" (47 km from Suizhou, in Hebei Province). Mistrust, fear of criticising the Communist Party - It is no coincidence that she is welcomed by a barking dog at the outset of the film. But her perseverance is also clear right from the start: she keeps the animal at bay with her even louder bark. This time, her collecting has a concrete purpose: to erect a stone memorial. She enquires about the names of witnesses and the dead, the dates - an almost impossible quest given that memories seem so fragmentary. Her determination to unlock this repressed history also brings her face to face with destitution in the here and now: a shack lit by a weak diesel lamp, the noiseless decline of a community reluctant to celebrate those who died from indigestion after a providential bowl of rice or because they were barred from scavenging through dustbins. "They are not heroes, they have done nothing exceptional", says one old man. Whether in its choreography or photography, Zhang 's choreographed photo installation set up near the village confirms that memory is not reserved for "heroes".
- "Only ...ism can save China". Rain and time have erased part of this phrase painted on the façade of a house in a small village in the Chinese countryside. Facing the camera, the old woman who lives here tells the story of her deceased son and, through him, a little of her country's history. But is it possible to fill the gap left by communism in Chinese society? Does the word itself still hold the same meaning for the different generations? In the village, a small 14-year-old girl paints her bright interpretation of the landscape on the walls: an enormous red sun, a village in springtime, Little Red Riding Hood and the witch swapping their dreams. A possible way, for the coming generation, to fill this semantic space left empty by communism. Zhang Mengqi delivers the seventh part of the series made about this small village 47 km from Suizhou, taking the vacuum as the starting point for political and cinematographical reflection. A personal and attentive perspective on the territory, which articulates the memory of a disappearing generation and the hopes of the one to come.
- The eighth film in Zhang Mengqi's monumental 47km series follows an 85-year-old man reflecting on his revolutionary history in pursuit of Mao's "New China" and the 15-year-old woman whose portrait painting practice elicits his memories.
- The fifth documentary in Zhang Mengqi's Self-portrait series, "Self-portrait: Dying at 47 KM," is a search for the meaning of death in the aftermath of the filmmaker's grandfather's death. Zhang Mengqi's Self-portraits are all shot in 47 KM, her ancestral village 47 kilometers from her family's home in Suizhou, Hubei province. "My grandfather has passed away, and what does the village mean to me without him?" she writes about the making of the fifth documentary in the series, and continues, "I started to search for stories about death in the village: some are of unnatural causes, some are bizarre, and some are results of hatred. In the daily life accompanied by so many deaths, how should I understand death?"
- This is the fourth film in my self-portrait series. I went back to the village named 47 km in 2013. My grandfather was critically ill, and I accompanied him like accompanied the death. The old people and their memories are like dead leaves. I got familiar with the children and we acted together to build a bookroom in village. Between the solitary old people and the naïve sunshine children, can I find my dream here?
- This film started with me wanting to make a film to memorialize and explore my deep emotions toward my mother, who passed away in 2007. As I was making the film, my thoughts toward it kept shifting, especially as I sorted through the 12 years of footage I had collected, seeing subtleties I had previously overlooked, or reliving experiences that had long since passed. Even more impactful was facing the moving images of my mother, seeing someone dear to me who had already left this world captured with such lifelike movements, utterances, expressions, like it all just happened yesterday. Then I realized this film is not just about remembering her-it's also an experiment in bringing her back to life. Especially at a time when I was in the process of trying to heal myself, my mother was a crucial element. And so, through my mother, remembrance, the present, healing and self-healing, this film's structure and narrative form began to naturally materialize.