Movie Monday: Street Life (Nanjing Lu)
We go to Shanghai for our next Chinese documentary: Zhao Dayong’s Street Life (Nanjing Lu), which follows trash collectors picking out a living on Shanghai’s famous Nanjing Road. As dGenerate Films explains:
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Chinese migrants are drawn to the allure of Shanghai, one of the world’s most vibrant cities, with hopes of earning a decent living. Some end up in the dark alleys of Nanjing Road, Shanghai’s largest shopping street, where they learn to hustle and scrape together any kind of living they can. One migrant, known as Black Skin, faces numerous pressures in his daily existence, including police violence. Black Skin’s story intersects with those of fellow bottle collectors, enterprising thieves and even a young boy who was abandoned. Eventually Black Skin goes mad, dancing wildly through the crowds of Nanjing Road and in the doorways of luxury shops.
Select Film Festivals:
Jury Prize, Beijing Documentary Film Festival
City of Rome Prize, Rome Asiatica Film Mediale
Vienna Film Festival
Berlin Blobale Film Festival
Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival, China
Filming East Festival, UK
Run Time: 98 minutes
Chinese with English subtitles
Monday, August 17, 8 pm
20 RMB