Yunnan Visual Forum in Yamagata
A Visual Festival from South of the Clouds Guo Jing
Part 1: Visual Anthropology in Yunnan
Part 2: A New Wave of Yunnan Images
The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival has anticipated and supported Chinese documentaries since the festival’s earliest years—the 1993 Ogawa Shinsuke Prize winner 1966, My Time in the Red Guards (dir. Wu Wenguang); the first Chinese film to be selected in the International Competition, The Square (dir. Zhang Yuan & Duan Jinchuan, 1995); the sudden surge of amazing handicam videos by independent filmmakers from 1997 to 2001; the 2003 Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize winner, Tie Xi Qu: West of Tracks (dir. Wang Bing). In an enormous mosaic of a country and in an era of drastic social change, various perspectives with differing views on reality give birth to an amazing array of films. At this crucial turning point in film culture as well, film festivals and educational institutions are building a community of filmmakers in Kunming. Let us recognize these amazing behind-the-scenes supporters of film culture as we watch over the future of Chinese documentary.