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.