China Villagers Documentary Project

China Villagers Documentary Project

2005. China. Various directors. Wu Wenguang and filmmaker Jian Yi trained 10 villagers from across China to make films documenting electoral processes in their home villages. Pursuing the ideal that anyone can become a documentary filmmaker, this project sparked a new model of Chinese participatory documentary, with community members depicting their own lives. The resulting works—surprisingly humorous, and filled with their own local flavor—vividly reveal the realities of village life and democracy in action. Courtesy of China Independent Documentary Film Archive. In Mandarin, various Chinese dialects; English subtitles. 95 min.