There's a Strong Wind in Beijing

DIR. Ju Anqi

DOCUMENTARY

China 1999

IN MANDARIN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

50 MINS

Ju Anqi presents a rare screening of his acclaimed first feature length film, There's a Strong Wind in Beijing.

Beijing's Spring 1999: a city and a nation in flux, peeking out on the verge of the millennium. Director Ju Anqi with two crew members, an old Arriflex 16mm camera and a microphone mounted on a television antenna, rush around Beijing, taking in a wedding, a school, an apartment building, Tiananmen Square, a beauty parlour, and even a public toilet, using both expired and new film stock. The film captures a reality both changing and unchanged, asking the people it comes across the same question - "Do you think there's a strong wind in Beijing?

Described by critics as having taken Cinema Verite to its limits, There's a Strong Wind in Beijing has a unique look and style, breaking with the conventions of Chinese film with its bold and utterly uninhibited approach. The idea of being direct reflects Ju's conscious break with Chinese culture and media, in a society where the influence of politics and history on personal psychology makes spontaneity virtually impossible. Selected for the Berlin International Film Festival, it marked Ju Anqi out as a pioneer among China’s new generation of experimental filmmakers, capturing a country and people in transition, daring to highlight the conflict between poverty and wealth. Not just a reaction to state-run media and popular culture, the film also reflects the character and general society of modern mainland China through it honest journalistic technique, and perhaps more importantly, does away with the Chinese preoccupation with appearance and pleasant facades.