This Is Not a Time to Lie

An exhaustively created moving image mural of Beijing and her inhabitants, painstakingly extracted from an archive of half a million 35mm negatives.

As Tang Sanzang and his disciples arrive at Lion Camel Ridge, they encounter villagers captured by demons. Wukong's attempt to rescue them goes awry, and he and Zhu Bajie fall into a trap set by the three demon kings. Overwhelmed by their enemies, Wukong seeks help from the Buddha and learns the value of unity and teamwork. With the help of his brothers and a Bodhisattva, they work together to save the villagers and continue their journey westward, stronger and more united than before.

“Our family is special”, says filmmaker Lei Lei’s father Lei Jiaqi. On the audio track of this inventive, poignant essay film he starts to talk about the struggles of his family, amid China’s troubled times of the 1960s. When his own father, Lei Ting, is sent to the countryside, he stays behind with his sister and his ill mother. When Mum passes away, and the system forbids Ting to come back to live with his children, the kids are kept in an orphanage.

A boy and his mother sit in a cardboard car in front of painted landscape. This postcard from his childhood is what triggers Chinese artist Lei Lei to go on a journey down the rabbit hole of memory. Put together with his signature style of melancholic collage, time jitters in and out of its usual flow as screenshots, found photos and propaganda images appear in succession as if pulled through an archaic machine to explore how truth is coloured by nostalgia.

What happened to Lupita after the frustrated attempt to get into the dance battle? And what's up with Huo now, the dancer that Lupita idolized? What remains of that life-changing afternoon in Lupita's best friend memory?

One day, a heavy rain floods a small, peaceful village. A brave child swims to the universe to save the day.

"What did you dream about and what was your daily life as a teenager?” An older woman recalls her youthful memories in China during the 1970’s while unfolding in front of our eyes the recreation of the modern times from the past. Until one day, the first breathless animal appears, a White horse…

During a mahjong game, a bad situation occurs. Everyone waits for the last player to show up. The three have no choice but to wait and sit there silently in tears. However, they do believe that the fourth player will come. They look up to the sky waiting for this miracle to happen.

Searching for the house his father grew up in, director Lei Lei charts the story of a childhood in rural China using a mix of found footage, collage, and animation techniques: a moving account of all the things the father thinks he was not good at.

The fragile materialities of Yangzhou wood engraving and analog film converge in Lei Lei’s fractal portrait of labor and craft. Exploring techniques of light and poetry, wood and celluloid, re-engraved montages demonstrations of expertise with a cacophonous electronic soundtrack and the personal histories of the women whose labor sustains these traditions.

With animation from Lei Lei and beatboxing from Eloi Dequeker, this is the story of "guy with a hat" as he heads to the cinema in the supercar.

Dave draws the first page of his comic book and excitedly shows it to his friend Lei Lei. Lei Lei is not impressed.

After A Bright Summer Diary (IFFR 2020) and Ningdu (IFFR 2022) we once again welcome Lei Lei to Rotterdam with this compelling tribute to bygone images and memories. As always, the mundane comes alive through a conscientious montage of gorgeous compositions. A two-part quest for what has been lost through time, Break no.1 & Break no.2 fires the imagination.

Love – and ping pong - can be liberating in a world of sameness.

Short animation about a running girl by Lei Lei