| Details | Available in DC, Maryland, and Virginia from November 27–December 11 In a time when most of our human interactions take place on computer screens, Zhu Shengze’s award-winning found footage documentary on Chinese livestreamers may be the perfect commentary on how our world has come to resemble the stuff of science fiction. Unlike the well-groomed YouTube stars familiar to us in the United States, Chinese livestreaming was (until a government crackdown in 2017) a much more chaotic affair, with millions of streamers sharing elements of their lives from the mundane to the bizarre while competing to win “rewards” from their followers. Distilled from some 800 hours of livestreamers’ footage made before the government ban, Zhu’s film has its share of humorous eccentrics—a break dancing soldier, a bored crane operator, a spectacularly tuneless street singer—but it is most compelling when she zeroes in on how marginalized people used the medium to take control of their own narratives, from the thirtysomething man who never reached puberty due to a genetic condition to a disfigured burn victim to a garment worker who streams her grueling workdays. (Dir.: Zhu Shengze, China, 2019, 124 min., Mandarin with English subtitles) Stream it Here: https://watch.eventive.org/scifiacrossasia
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmVgbiEDs_0 Images courtesy of Burn the Film |
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