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Screen/Society--Cine-East: East Asian Cinema [China]--"Iron Moon: The Poetry of Chinese Workers" (docu. + filmmaker Q&A)

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Sunday, November 13, 2016
7:00 pm - 8:45 pm
Q&A to follow w/ director Qin Xiaoyu & producer Cai Qingzeng!
Cine-East: East Asian Cinema [China]

Film Screening: "Iron Moon: The Poetry of Chinese Workers" (QIN Xiaoyu & WU Feiyue, 2015, 84 min, China, in Chinese w/ English subtitles, Color, Digital) / An assembly line worker in an Apple factory who commits suicide at the young age of 24, leaving behind 200 poems of despair; a guileless lathe operator who is rebuffed at every turn, living in the world of his poetry; a female clothing factory worker who lives in poverty but writes poetry rich in dignity and love; a coal miner who works deep in the earth year round, trying to contact and make peace with the spirits of his dead coworkers through his poetry; and a goldmine demolitions worker who blasts rocks several kilometers into mountainsides to support his family, while writing poetry to carry the weight of his fury and affections. They could be any of the 350 million workers in China, and yet these five are also poets. This is one story behind the sudden rise of China, and a mournful song of global capitalism. / -- Winner for Best Documentary Film at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival (2015)! / About the filmmakers: Co-director QIN Xiaoyu is also a poet, writer, poetry critic, chair of the Zurong Dialect Film Festival Committee, and jury member for the Beijing Huayi International Chinese Poetry Competition. Producer Cai Qingzeng's case study of "Iron Moon" was featured in China Documentary Report and in the Idoc database.

Contact: Hank Okazaki