>> Catalog 2003

Three-Five People

CHINA, USA / 2001 / English, Chinese / Color / Video / 85 min

Director, Script, Photography, Editing, Narrator, Producer, Source: Li Lin
92 Boundary St. Roseville NSW, 2069 AUSTRALIA
Phone / Fax: 61-2-9417-0353
E-mail: dingding@dodo.com.au

On the streets of Chengdu in Sichuan Province we meet twelve-year-old Hu Jian and his friends, stealing to pay for drugs and addicted to heroin. The director’s hidden camera reveals the structure of an underworld exploiting children for cash and its back-scratching alliance with the police. She struggles to get the kids to Beijing to stop them from taking drugs and tries asking an orphanage to protect them, but ends up with her life threatened by the police and the underworld. The title was taken from the 350-yuan bail (equivalent to 5,000 yen) for the release of a minor arrested by the police.

[Director’s Statement] I was about to make a very different short film when I had a chance encounter with these children. I found it impossible not to make this video, both with them and for them. In the process, I learned much more about their tragic stories, and how they are victims of great evils. They are still innocent, with the potential for leading useful and happy lives, free of drugs and crime.

Mankind strives to achieve civilized society under globalization. However, having had the opportunity to live with these youths in China, I realized that morals, tradition and faith are fading away each day in the midst of the glamour generated by cash. The very worst of early-period capitalism is being reenacted in China today.

Li Lin Born in 1960 during a famine in a small town in Manzhouli, North East China. Was breastfed by mother until the age of six because of severe food shortages and illness. Was raised by father, a doctor, for the next two years during the Cultural Revolution. Learned to draw from father, and first works as artist were Red Guard paintings. Studied sculpture at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts and the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales. Studied film and video at California Institute of the Arts. Works include Soul Flight, Floating, and Sydney Coal Loader. Three-Five People was screened at the Vienna International Film Festival and Shadow Documentary Festival in Amsterdam in 2001, and the Pusan International Film Festival in 2002. Just completed Save Our Souls, the sequel to this work.