Within the framework of the on-going "Together with Migrants" project, UNESCO Beijing Office and the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, invite Chinese filmmakers, engaged in the issue of Migration in China, to present their movies supporting migrant workers.

The series of screening will show both documentaries and fictions related to the challenges faced by migrant workers in their city daily life. A debate will follow the screening with the participation of the filmmakers.
The first screening will take place 8 July 2004. Other two events will follow in Autumn 2004. （Free entry）

Participating directors for first screening:
Wang Shiqing: Drifting Dust  (a.k.a. Like a Gust of Dust) 2002, 50 min, documentary
Wu Wenguang: Dance with Farmworkers, 2001, 10 min of 60 min, documentary,

The aim of the "Together with Migrants" project is to reduce poverty among young female migrant workers in China. The project started in 2002 and will go on until 2005. Until now, 20.000 female migrants have benefited from its activities, such as health awareness (HIV/AIDS), legal and social rights protection, life skills, basic skills, vocational training, techniques for job seeking.

The project is currently being implemented in eight pilot sites located throughout China.

"Together with Migrants" Screening

Venue: Cherry Lane Movie
Address: East of the 21st Century Theater, An Jia Lou Street (off Liang Ma Qiao Road)
First screening: July 8, 7.00 pm

For more information, please contact:
Genevieve Domenach-Chich
E-mail: g.domenach-chich@unesco.org
Telephone: 65327684, ext. 158 or 137

Wang Shiqing: Drifting Dust  (a.k.a. Like a Gust of Dust) 2002, 50 min, documentary

Wang Shiqing, born in Ankang city of Shanxi province in 1973, studied radio communication in Jiangsu Province at the age of 15. At 19 years old, he started working in Xi'an and learned calligraphy and photography there. At 23, he entered Beijing Film Academy to learn cinematography. Currently, he is shooting films, documentary films and TV series.

Synopsis

When she was 17 year-old, in 1983, Sichuanese girl Tang Jiarong was sold by a human trader to Mao Heduo, an illiterate peasant 12 years older than her and living in Shandong province. In 1998, she left the farm to go find odd works in Beijing, and met Wang Zengfu, another migrant worker selling flowers. They started to work and live together. But Tang Jiarong had another idea in mind: bring her old husband and their son to Beijing. The problem is they don't have a legal marriage certificate.

Wu Wenguang: Dance with Farmworkers, 2001, 10 min of 60 min, documentary,

Born in 1956 in Yunnan, China, Wu Wenguang was at first a primary school teacher and then journalist for Kunming Television and China Central TV. In 1991 he founded the documentary production studio Wu, in Beijing. Since 1990 he shot various films, among which we recall: Time in the Red Guards (1993), Jiang Hu: Life on the Road (2000)

Synopsis

A documentary about a very unconventional performance: the project involved not only actors and dancers, but also 30 Beijing farm workers from the poorer regions of Sichuan province. In addition, both the rehearsals and the performance took place in the production hall of a former textile factory that could soon be torn down as part of Beijing's rapid modernisation. The superbly fit farm labourers, who came to the city when they lost hope that conditions would improve at home, are the supporting pillars of this modernisation – and also of this performance. The 30 farm labourers working on building sites in Beijing had at first the sole wish to be paid 30 Yuan a day. It was only some time later that they discovered that they, the lowest of the low, would be standing centre stage. My aim as a documentary filmmaker was to record the preparations for the performance. The film was to focus on people who are not normally at the centre of things (i.e. the stage), people who are needed to modernise the city of Beijing and then quickly forgotten again. This performance will do as little to change these people's lives and fates as the documentary can show the full complexity of their lives. The film is like a plant that flowers for a while in a particular space. Today the curtain has long fallen. The production hall has been converted into an amusement park for Beijing's modern rich inhabitants. The farm labourers have returned to the building sites. My only consolation is that I will continue to follow them with my camera, documenting their lives, their work, their hopes and their fates. (Wu Wenguang)

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNESCO Office Beijing
Office of the Representative to Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
Japan, Mongolia, People's Republic of China, and Republic of Korea

(UNESCO Office Beijing June 21, 2004)