Glory of Documentary Screening Section is curated by West Lake International Documentary Festival for the purpose of cultivating audience and focusing on excellent documentaries at home and abroad. The purpose is to focus on the screening of outstanding international documentaries and Q&A after the screenings, presenting the academic vision, cultivate documentary audience, arouse discussions of cutting-edge topics, and help documentaries infiltrate into people's life, so as to create a documentary art feast for the public. Based on different perspectives and motivations, this section has various themes. It presents in the way of "screening -- post-screening Q&A", presenting the spirit of "exploring the ontology of documentary, setting up youth experiment, holding people's heart high and creating oriental temperament".
2019 IDF Screenings
Home Coming in Granddaughter
- Country/Area of Production： China
- Language of Dialogue： Chinese
- Runtime： 59 min
- Director： Bibo LIANG
- Type of Work： Short Documentary
- Producer： Xinjian LIANG
Introduction: In the 1940s, XIAO Shuming, a Han girl, married to Lugu Lake as the wife of a brigand chief. After 54 years, she would send her granddaughter Lachu out of this place.
PreviewInner Landscape
- Country/Area of Production： Netherlands
- Language of Dialogue： Chinese, English
- Runtime： 90 min
- Director： Frank Scheffer
- Type of Work： Feature-Length Documentary
- Producer： Jan de Ruiter, Niek Koppen, Pieter van Huystee, Jia ZHAO
Introduction: In fast-changing China where traditions are vanishing, composer Guo Wenjing seeks a way between Eastern and Western music, and between old and new China. Inner Landscape is a documentary about the creation of the chamber opera Si Fan, composed by Chinese composer Guo Wenjing for the Dutch ‘Nieuw Ensemble’. In Si Fan (‘yearnings of love’),…
PreviewCentar
- Country/Area of Production： Serbia, Germany
- Language of Dialogue： No Dialogue
- Runtime： 48 min
- Director： Ivan Marković
- Type of Work： Short Documentary
- Producer： Jelena Radenković
Introduction: A socialist, modernist congress center. made to host thousands, now stands almost abandoned. This vast complex of corridors, atriums and halls is not more than a memory of another time. The architecture still reflects a former idea of the future , while the worn down materials testify to the end of this idea. Through their relentless effo…
PreviewI Grew Up As You Slept
- Country/Area of Production： Poland
- Language of Dialogue： Belarusian
- Runtime： 50 min
- Director： Marcin Sauter
- Type of Work： Short Documentary
- Producer： Marcin Sauter
Introduction: Karalina left Belarus, just like the overwhelming majority of her friends from music school. The lives of Belarussian intelligentsia members are portrayed in the form of a study of nostalgia –longing for their families, friends and the childhood they remember in idyllic colours. President Lukashenka declares on public television that ther…
PreviewBreathless Animals
- Country/Area of Production： USA
- Language of Dialogue： Chinese
- Runtime： 68 min
- Director： Lei Lei
- Type of Work： Feature-Length Documentary
- Producer： Lei Lei
Introduction: "What did you dream about and how was your life as a teenager?" A woman recalls her youthful memories of her 1970’s while the re-creation of the modernity of the past of China unfolds in front of our eyes. One day, the first breathless animal appears to her, a White horse…
PreviewMichel Foucault
- Country/Area of Production： China
- Language of Dialogue： Chinese, French, English
- Runtime： 83 min
- Director： Min-an WANG
- Type of Work： Feature-Length Documentary
- Producer： Min-an WANG
Introduction: As an experimental philosophical documentary, also named “thesis documentary”, it aims to make philosophy speak, embodying the thoughts as a visible figure. In the sermonic speech, sincere candor and drastic debate of Foucault, with the brilliant analysis of those scholars, people could discover the charm in his philosophy and character. …
PreviewHavana Divas
- Country/Area of Production： Hong Kong China
- Language of Dialogue： Cantonese, Spanish, English
- Runtime： 90 min
- Director： S. Louisa WEI
- Type of Work： Feature-Length Documentary
- Producer： Law Kar
Introduction: Caridad Amaran and Georgina Wong learned the art of Cantonese opera in 1930s Havana. Caridad’s mentor was her foster father, Julian Fong, who immigrated to Cuba in the 1920s after his family forbade him performing opera. Georgina’s father was a famous tailor in Chinatown, who encouraged her to learn Kungfu and lion dance. Although both we…
PreviewBridges of Time
- Country/Area of Production： Latvia, Lithuania
- Language of Dialogue： Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Russian, Hebrew
- Runtime： 78 min
- Director： Audrius Stonys, Kristīne Briede
- Type of Work： Feature-Length Documentary
- Producer： Uldis Cekulis, Arunas Matelis
Introduction: At the beginning of the 1960s, when the French pioneers of Cinéma Vérité set out to achieve a new realism, and when Direct Cinema in Québec begins to vie for notice, the Baltics witnesses the birth of a generation of documentarists who favor a more romantic view of the world around them. This meditative documentary essay – from a Latvian …
PreviewBetter Angels
- Country/Area of Production： Canada, China, USA
- Language of Dialogue： Chinese, English
- Runtime： 88 min
- Director： Malcolm Clarke
- Type of Work： Feature-Length Documentary
- Producer： William Mundell, HAN Yi
Introduction: At a time when the world’s two acknowledged superpowers seem to be moving towards economic and political conflict, a new feature documentary by two-time Academy Award®–winning director Malcolm Clarke explores how the destiny of both countries became so deeply and inextricably intertwined. By examining the day-to-day lives of ordinary Chin…
PreviewLife is a Belief
- Country/Area of Production： China
- Language of Dialogue： Chinese, Kazakh
- Runtime： 106 min
- Director： XIAO Han
- Type of Work： Feature-Length Documentary
- Producer： XIAO Han, LEI Jianjun
Introduction: In Foshan, a southern China city, a post-90s wage earner Huang Zhongjian is attempting to build justice by Choy Lee Fut and lion dance in his hometown. In Northern Xinjiang, an old saddler who once famous, Ahet, is sparing no effort to pay his two sons` debts. These two men who unrelated are facing increasingly similar situation.
Ahet's b…
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