MR. TANG

A story about old town residents guarding their homes, and their attachment to their land. A reflection on human nature and emotions

SU XIA 

Professor and the dean of College of Film and Animation, China Academy of Art. His circular-screen work City Square (2010) was presented in the theme pavilion at Shanghai Expo and won many awards at both domestic and international festivals. His short fiction film Derailment (2014) was selected for the 38th Montreal International Film Festival. Director Su Xia's animation short Gold is Eating People (2021) was selected in The World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb 2021 edition, and was also the only Chinese short selected in Annecy International Animated Film Festival's Short Films Competition in 2021.

SU HONGYU 

Student of College of Film and Animation at China Academy of Art. Author of short films PRESENT (2020) and WARD BED 37 (2018).

Buildings have been built and re-built on this land for more than 200 years, and residents here, like the constantly renewed houses, have been passing through generations, preserving a weak but lasting vitality. But those in power are not satisfied with this. Taohuawu has a glorious past as a water trade market, and the government wants to experiment with new possibilities here — «reconstructing old towns» is an eternal theme in new China. But to the residents of the old town, «new» contains a sense of alien-ness. They are used to their environment and old way of life, and this land contains indelible times and memories for them. Some residents want to move, while others don’t, but all in all, demolition and relocation is inevitable. They would then, of course, want to live better lives after this demolition and relocation; in simpler terms, they want compensation. But obviously, the organizers have a limited amount of funding, and so those who’re satisfied with their compensation have left, while those who are unsatisfied have stayed. Houses belonging to those who have moved away are crumbling down, while rubble builds up around those who stay. Everyone is tense, and atop the ruins of demolished houses, subtle conflicts arise...

From 2018 to 2021, We led a shooting team deep into the Lanxi old town shantytown district of Zhejiang to conduct on-site research. For four years, we’ve focused our lenses on the residents of Taohuawu, interviewing families that have stayed behind, observing and recording their daily norms, and listening to their inner needs, in order to record the history of these senior residents. The documentary gives a unique perspective for the audience to reflect on the division between the traditional and the modern, and people’s explorations in the conflict between industrial culture and community culture.

• Ethnocineca International Documentary Film Festival in Vienna, Austria

Doker 2022 — Main Competition