SCHED: SF International Film Fest '08

Links: Event Details/ Who's going | Original Source
About: With the approach of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the eyes of the world are on China and its astonishing burst of economic growth. What lies beyond the glossy images of rapid construction and newfound wealth, however, remains largely hidden from view: urban China's abandonment of its rural past and the brutal disparities in prosperity and opportunity since the economic reforms of the 1980s and '90s. Umbrella, the latest documentary from Du Haibin-one of China's Sixth Generation filmmakers known for their underground efforts and penchant for exposing uncomfortable truths-trains an unflinching gaze upon this stark reality. Divided into five segments, the film revisits the core groups that characterized China's pre-reform society-workers, merchants, students, soldiers and peasants-to examine their status today, as the notion of wealth undergoes a reformulation and the time-honored farming culture is nearly disposed of in the name of modernization. Opening on an umbrella factory and using these utilitarian devices as a running theme throughout, Haibin offers an intensely personal close-up of his subjects and their struggles, observing their daily routines, their moments of weakness, their camaraderie and their isolation. Eschewing any interviews, with the exception of an aging farmer's heartbreaking monologue in the closing scene, Umbrella employs a startling voyeur's perspective from which to observe lives physically distant from our own but perhaps not so far removed from the experience of our own heartland.-Deanna Quinones North American Premiere.
Also playing on: Tue 4/29, 9:00 pm | Fri 5/2, 5:30 pm
Tags: documentaries