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A River Stilled
CHINA / 1999 / Chinese / Color / Video /65 min

Director, Photography:
Jiang Yue
Sound: Chen Min, Niu Xiangfang, Wen Bing
Production Company, Source: Chuan Linyue Films. Co.
J - 1304, Hui Yuan Apartment, Beijing 100101 CHINA
Phone: 86-10-64934322 / Fax: 86-10-64992214


Jiang Yue

Born in 1962. Graduated from the Faculty of Literature at the China Drama Institute. Joined the Beijing Film Studio and worked on feature films. Began making documentaries in 1991. Works include, Tibetan Theater Troupe of Lhama (1991), Bakhor (1992), The Residents of Lhasa's Potala Square (1992), Catholics in Tibet (1992), shown at YIDFF '93, and The Other Bank (1995), screened at YIDFF '95.

This film shows the story of a young couple who meet and marry while working on the Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze River. While still maintaining a cool distance, the film is nonetheless warm and generous in its portrait.
With a backdrop of the daily life of the ten thousand(!) other workers, the life - sized video portrayal of these two unpretentious yet distinct individuals stands in relief to past films about public works projects, films which have tended to depict their protagonists in exaggerated, monumental terms. With construction having begun in 1994, the government of China aims to make the river navigable by 2009, and upon its completion, the world's largest dam and hydro - electric power plant will ultimately occupy more than 650 km2, allow for the passage of ten - thousand ton freighters, and will supply one fourth of the electricity required in China. The dam will also involve the
displacement and resettlement of some one million people.
This film covers the time span until the work of checking the dam is completed in November, 1997. The young couple are standing at a difficult cross - road. While he has lost his job; she is about to give birth to their child. No one knows what will befall the young couple, but the film succeeds in making us feel invested in their hopes for the best, in their future happiness.
[Fukushima Yukio]
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COPYRIGHT:Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Organizing Committee