Wu Wenguang is considered the father of China’s independent documentary movement. A prolific videomaker, performance artist, and writer based in Beijing, he is a founder of Caochangdi Workstation, where he teaches documentary production and curates festivals of new work. In 2005, Wu established the Village Video Project to document village life in China today. Out of this enterprise emerged the Memory Project, devoted to recording pivotal historical moments and movements in socialist China as recalled by village elders.
This evening’s program is the concluding part of an event featuring work by the newest generation of China’s documentary makers, known as the 80-hou generation (born after 1980). Wu will screen his work Testament (2010), in which he explores the emotions stirred by facing the filmic “resurrection” of his mother, who died in 2007, as he edited 12 years of footage.
After the screening, Wu is joined by three of his mentees—Luo Bing, Zhang Mengqi, and Zuo Zueping, whose work was screened only for The New School students and faculty during the day—for a discussion of the Memory Project and the importance of recuperating collective memory for China.
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