There’s a Strong Wind in Beijing
Film Name: There’s a Strong Wind in Beijing
Film Gauge: 16mm
Runtime: 50min.
Director: Ju Anqi
Cinematography: Liu Yonghong
Camera Assistant: Liu Lijun
Producer&Sound&Editor: Ju Anqi
Production: Trench Film Group
Shooting/Releasing Time: 1999/2000
This film premiered at the 50th Berlin International Film Festival.
Synopsis
Beijing’s Spring 1999, a city and a nation in flux, peeking out on the verge of the millennium.
Director Ju Anqi with two crew members, an old Arriflex 16mm camera, and a microphone mounted on a T.V.antenna, rush into Beijing’s scene: a wedding, a school, an apartment building, Tian An Men Square, a beauty parlour, and even a public toilet…using both expired and new film stock, capturing a changing and unchanged reality, with only one question,”Do you think there’s a strong wind in Beijing?” Everyone gives his different reply…It is quite rare to see such a shocking film, especially when the film’s footage was shot in a 1:1 ratio with nothing in the final production being left out. That is a crucial element of this film miracle. The film premiered at the 50th Berlin International Film Festival in 2000, with its disruptive film style stunning around. It has thus become a milestone for China’s experimental film.