
Argumento en inglés:
The most influential of the Chinese video documentarists, and the key videomaker in the program, is Wu Wenguang, today in his early 40s. With some experience working at a Beijing TV station but without having seen any modern documentaries, Wu got hold of a camcorder in 1988 and began taping the everyday fives of five of his friends -- three men and two women. All were artists, marginal and jobless, who Lacked official permits to live in Beijing. Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers (1990) reckons with the fact that these artists were internal exiles even before the events in Tiananmen Square. As one says, "You don't have any choice." From their standpoint, it's a question of either living "aimlessly" (which is how they see marriage and a job), committing suicide or just doing what they want to do -- which puts them beyond the pale of the social order. Wu began taping shortly, before the events in Tiananmen Square. We are barely introduced to his friends when there is a temporal gap at the point when the democracy movement is crushed. As much as we feel its force, this calamity is never directly, referred to. Then we see the swiftness of its effect. Within months four of the five friends have left the country, three emigrating to Europe, one to the U.S.
What is especially striking is that Wu was in a position to invent his own kind of cinema verite -- and did so. In his hands, cinema verite is an intimate form; his camera is empathetic, not intrusive or voyeuristic. Wu's friends trust him, and they don't play to the camera. Favoring the kind of steady, observant long take that establishes a mood, slowly reveals a character and feels meditative. Wu records daily life, appearing never to judge the point of a scene but rather to discover the resonance that lurks beneath a statement or a gesture. His videos therefore seem to earn their length, which can stretch close to three hours.
Información extraída de Fileheaven.org
