Yumen

CountryUSA, China Year2013 Duration65 min. DirectionJ.P. Sniadecki, Xu Ruotao, Huang Xiang PhotographyJ.P. Sniadecki, Huang Xiang EditorXu Ruotao, J.P. Sniadecki SoundJ.P. Sniadecki, Huang Xiang CastChen Qi, Zhou Qian, Chen Xuehua, Huang Xiang, Xu Ruotao

Narration Script: Xu Ruotao, Yinyan
Voice-Over Narration: Xu Ruotao, Chen Qi, Zhou Qian, Chen Xuehua
Post-production sound mix: Ernst Karel

Produced in association with the Film Study Center at Harvard University.

Set in a quasi-ghost town that once thrived with oil in China's arid northwest, Yumen is a haunting, fragmented tale of hungry souls, restless youth, a wandering artist and a lonely woman, all searching for human connection among the town's crumbling landscape. One part "ruin porn", one part "ghost story”, and entirely shot on 16mm, the film brings together performance art, narrative gesture, and social realism not only to play with convention and defy genre, but also to pay homage to a disappearing life-world and a fading medium.

In the same program

People's Park. Libbie D. Cohn, J. P. Sniadecki

The Yellow Bank. J. P. Sniadecki

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