DV China (2003) dir. Zheng Dasheng

Chicago-educated Shanghai director Zheng Dasheng documents the struggle of Zhou Yuanquiang, a cultural worker in Jingdezhen, China’s porcelain capital. When Zhou noticed the popularity of TV serials with the peasants in his province in the eighties, he bought a Sony Hi8 video camera and involved untrained local actors and technical assistants in creating dramas drawn from China’s revolutionary history. When Zheng comes to document his efforts, his troupe is beginning work on a new type of drama: a kung-fu adventure story with three brightly-clad female heroines. He laboriously creates slow-motion and special effects with his beloved old camera, calling in the actors to dub in clattering spears for the fight scenes and meticulously setting up a scene in which the three heroines leap up onto a wall. Perhaps most moving is an interview with Zhou’s wife, who speaks of their past on the farm as she paints Jingdezhen porcelain which supports the family as Zhou pursues his artistic dream.