Dead Souls
死靈魂
DIRECTOR(S): Wang Bing COUNTRIES: France, Switzerland YEAR: 2018 LANGUAGE(S): Mandarin Chinese SUBTITLES: English RUNNING TIME: 495 min
SECTION: Accompanying Programme 2019
SCREENINGS
Sunday, 06.10., 10.00 am, Kunstbunker
Monday, 07.10., 10.00 am, Kunstbunker
Tuesday, 08.10., 10.00 am, Kunstbunker
In Gansu Province, northwest China, lie the remains of countless prisoners abandoned in the Gobi Desert 60 years ago. Designated as “ultra-rightists” in the Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957, they starved to death in the Jiabiangou and Mingshui reeducation camps. The film invites us to meet the survivors of the camps to find out firsthand who these persons were, the hardships they were forced to endure and what became their destiny.
The film consists only of shocking eyewitness accounts of people in their 90s, most of whom have since died. Their words and faces create a film monument of historical remembrance that lasts over eight hours.
The latest installation by Wang Bing (whose works featured at Documenta 14) will be presented in cooperation with the Kunstbunker – Forum für zeitgenössische Kunst. The eyewitness accounts follow on from each other. There is a 30-minute pause after four hours.
WANG BING
Wang Bing was born in Xi’an, China, in 1967. He studied photography and cinematography. He began his career as an independent filmmaker in 1999. Wang Bing came to the attention of an international audience with his three-part epic documentary Tiexi qu: the West of the Tracks in 2002.
FILMOGRAPHY
Tiexi qu: the West of the Tracks (2002), He Fengming (2007), O Estado do Mundo (2007), Cruel Oil (2008), Coal Money (2009), Xi Yang Tang (2009), Sinergias: Diálogo entre Jaime Rosales y Wang Bing (2009), Man with no Name (2010), L’usage du monde: Vol. 1 (2010), Das Erdloch (2010), Allein in den bergen von Yunan (2012), Three Sisters (2012), Alone (2013), Venice 70: Future Reloaded (2013), ‘Til Madness Do Us Part (2013), Dead Souls (2018)
SCRIPT: Wang Bing PRODUCERS: Serge Lalou, Camille Laemle, Louise Prince, Wang Bing CAMERA: Wang Bing, Shan Xiaohui, Song Yang, Liu Xianhui EDITOR: Catherine Rascon
PRODUCTION: Les Films D’ici, CS Productions WORLD SALES: Théo Lionel, Doc & Film International
