"I am used to salvaging the stories of ordinary people in the long river of time." On June 22, the documentary film "Aunt Hu's Garden" directed by Wenzhou-based director Pan Zhiqi won the 2024 Shanghai International Film Festival Golden Goblet Award for Best Documentary.
Pan Zhiqi spent nine years recording the story of a mother and her son, as well as the process of social development in the past ten years.
In the past two days, Pan Zhiqi has accepted one wave of media interviews. He was overjoyed to win the award and has calmed down. He is also looking forward to letting everyone see Aunt Hu's story after it is released.
9 years
records the story of a mother and son
The works that compete for the "Best Documentary" of the Golden Goblet Award every year use different dimensions and visions to compose the glory of human nature with a visual system and witness the human beings when they face real difficulties. Reflection and Strength. "Aunt Hu's Garden" is the only documentary from mainland China selected for this year's Shanghai International Film Festival, and had its world premiere during the Shanghai International Film Festival.
The story of "Aunt Hu's Garden" is actually very simple: Aunt Hu in Chongqing makes a living by running an extremely low-priced small hotel in Shibati. Although her life is poor, she sometimes helps needy residents. Aunt Hu built a colorful garden out of discarded garbage, using this poetic space to achieve self-salvation and comfort her sick son.
Different from the industrialized approach, Pan Zhiqi always looks for photographic opportunities from the space around him. In 2010, he went to Chongqing to attend a friend's film festival. He saw that the strong smell of fireworks was in huge contrast with the bustling CBD nearby, and that Shibati was about to face renovation. This kind of cinematic space with great contrast aroused Pan Zhiqi's great interest, and he began to pay attention to related character selections.
At the beginning, he photographed the old lady who opened a teahouse, the uncle who opened a mahjong parlor, and the owner of a video parlor who sold tickets for one yuan a piece. Although these vivid ordinary people are interesting, they seem unable to support his expression. Two years later, he met Aunt Hu and was surprised that in such an environment, there was a particularly soulful person. "Her daily life is to walk through the bustling Jiefangbei, pick up garbage, and then return to the 18th Staircase, which just connects the two spaces I want to tell."
From 2012 to 2021, Pan Zhiqi spent 9 years recording this To the life of mother and child. He was deeply moved by the mother and son's spiritual world and resilience in life. "Aunt Hu has a rare kind of idealism. Although the reality is very unbearable, she always transcends the suffering and has a beautiful heart, just like a flower blooming in the barren land."
A few days ago, Pan Zhiqi returned home due to a turn of events. I went to Chongqing. Watching the film for the first time with Aunt Hu and her son. Inside and outside the camera, with the same space and the same people, the memories travel back to ten years ago through the documentary, full of the magic of time. Aunt Hu and her son Shaobin, both in their 80s, laughed out loud when they saw interesting stories from the past. Pan Zhiqi raised the camera again. "The old man is older than before, but after watching the film, he seems to have found his fresh state again."
Showing the Progress of the Times
Pan Zhiqi has been filming documentaries for almost 20 years, which can be traced back to when he was a graduate student at Beijing Film Academy . He feels that the lives of many ordinary people around him are like a movie, and the underlying background is the process of urbanization and modern consumerism.
Once upon a time, his documentary film "Street 24" recorded the changes in a street in Hangzhou and showed the survival picture of migrant workers. In the past few years, he has also been following the stories of beekeepers traveling around the world chasing flowers and collecting honey.
Pan Zhiqi said that choosing ordinary people is an "unconscious choice", "You can always see a lot of shining people in the media, and it is difficult to see the stories of small people. In my opinion, the lives of ordinary people should also be seen "
Different from the traditional industrial film production method, Pan Zhiqi's documentary chooses a manual method to produce and writes in an authorial film style. He feels that he is more like a documentary "craftsman".
When he creates documentaries, he is basically the only one shooting in the early stage, and his attention to people and things will last for a long time.When filming "Aunt Hu's Garden" with , Pan Zhibin was mostly the one carrying the camera and following for the past few years. So much so that passers-by asked Aunt Hu, why is this person still filming you? Aunt Hu smiled and said, "This kid is too idle and has nothing to do."
"Aunt Hu's Garden"
will be released in art theaters
In the film industry, making documentaries is undoubtedly the most "unprofitable" activity A category. Many people have asked Pan Zhiqi, is it worth spending so long recording? "It's like asking an artist why they make art. The same goes for art films. Even without capital support, there will always be people who insist on doing it."
Next, Pan Zhiqi plans to let "Aunt Hu's Garden" be released in art theaters. He also knows that in the face of the general environment of commercial films, there is still a long way to go for documentaries to cultivate a broader market. "But it is always better to let more viewers see it."
In Pan Zhiqi's heart, art films are his spiritual garden, just like the garden created by Aunt Hu, which is a refreshing breeze and a bright moon, and a spiritual oasis. Introduction to director
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Pan Zhiqi, a native of Wenzhou, documentary director, and associate professor of Zhejiang University of Communication.
created documentary works: "Hidden", "24th Street", "Flower Chaser" and "Aunt Hu's Garden".
's "24th Street" feature film was selected into the feature film main competition unit of the 30th idfa Amsterdam International Documentary Festival in the Netherlands, nominated for the best documentary at the 55th Taipei Golden Horse Awards, and the best documentary feature at the 2nd West Lake Documentary Festival.
Source: Temperature News Client
