A River Stilled

Part of the 'Interesting Times' series with Kang Jianning's Xiao's Long March and Duan Jinchuan's My Secret to Success.

A story of a family's dilemma between different family member especially between 2 generations which erupted on “chu xi” (the day before the first day in Chinese lunar year).

Young students from across the country are invited to Beijing to perform a play written by future Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian. The film documents their feverishly intense rehearsals, the phenomenal public reception of their performances, and their desperate attempts to sustain their euphoria and pursue artistic careers in Beijing.

One of four documentary films made by Jiang Yue in Tibet during his trips in 1991 and 1992. "In between Southeastern Tibet, Sichuan Province, and Yunnan Province lies Tibet's only surviving Catholic Church and its congregation of over 400 people."

This documentary follows the whole process of a celestial burial ceremony in Tibet. It shows Tibetan religious customs, arts, and many vanishing life styles.

Short documentary film for Oriental Time • Living Space directed by Jiang Yue. This was a "demo" that Jiang made for Living Space's new producer, Chen Mang, after the departure of the original producer, Lu Wangping. From the example set by this film, Living Space thereafter developed the slogan: "Telling the stories of ordinary people.”

This documentary is named after the well known novel (and later propaganda film) of the same title, which offered a telling of an historic event in 1946 in Northeastern China, when the CCP initiated Land Reform as a means of attracting peasants to join-up with the PLA and help seize state power. Decades later, residents who are still alive and can recall those days offer their personal memories of the class struggle that erupted in Yuanbao Village. Meanwhile, in today's Yuanbao, the local cultural bureau is setting up the Museum of Land Reform as a memorial and a space for education.

On Tomb Sweeping Day, in 1988, a film crew set out for the monument of the Tangshan earthquake to shoot a memorial ceremony for the victims. This marked the beginning of shooting for a documentary called "The Great Earthquake." The crew continued to shoot through the rest of 1988, even staging a large-scale rock 'n' roll concert and performance art event on the Great Wall, and into 1989, including footage shot at the famous 1989 Avant-Garde Art Exhibition, where one artist fired two gun shots at her exhibit. More footage was shot during the Tiananmen protests, up until the events of June 4th shut down production for good. Shortly before, a two-hour "rough cut" was assembled by main director Wen Pulin and Assistant Director Hao Zhiqiang, which screened only once (and is preserved at University libraries in the U.S.). The footage has been recycled in some of Wen's later films, notably "China Action," but "The Great Earthquake" itself was never finished.

Independent documentary by Jiang Yue.

A film by Chinese documentary filmmaker Jinchuan Duan.

The first short documentary Jiang Yue made for the Oriental Time • Living Space program, about old men swimming in Houhai, Beijing.

Never broadcasted feature film by Chinese documentary filmmaker Kang Jianning.

Jiang Yue and cinematographer Bi Jianfeng set out to capture a Lama Tibetan Opera group. They did not have much knowledge about filming documentaries at the time. Jiang Yue wanted to artificially construct the scene, but this idea was quickly dispelled by the director of the Tibetan Opera group, Yixi Jiacuo, who insisted that there must be audiences in order for the players to perform on camera. By the end of the show, the audience was touched, as was Jiang, who said that he realized that there was a different energy to his film because of the audience's presence.