Knocking on Memory's Door with a Video Camera

Four Chinese filmmakers discuss their work in "The Memory Project," gathering memories of the "Great Famine" (1959-1961). Led by Wu Wenguang, one of the founding figures of Chinese independent documentary film, the project is based at Coachangdi Workstation in Beijing. From Beijing, young filmmakers fanned out to return to family villages and their own pasts, real and imagined, to inquire about The Great Famine of 1959-61 - a disaster whose memories have been actively abandoned by the state. Their films reveal as much about the wish for memory as of memory itself, and of the interesting role of film in such projects of retrieval. The filmmakers are visiting Duke October 24-26; for a schedule of film screenings and other events, see: http://web.duke.edu/apsi/events/films.html