Skip to content

Ode to Joe

Qiu Jiongjiong

Release year: 2008

Run time: 31 mins

Film type: Documentary

Synopsis

I would like to dedicate this film to the joy of being alive.
I grew up in a fairy-tale family atmosphere - my grandfather and I would naturally have a "play" of songs and dances when we met.
He would bring me into a world with his great attraction, a world that I recognized to a great extent. Being with my grandfather was a living pleasure. After his death I felt detached and even alienated from everything and everyone. But the most important thing about this impermanent experience for my life
But the most important thing that this experience of impermanence did for my life was that it taught me to be lonely - and from then on I was left to my own devices.

 

Director biography

Qiu Jiongjiong's experiences growing up have made him something of an eccentric in the art community: he began painting at age two and at age three he began performing local opera (his grandfather was a famous Sichuanese Opera performer). From a young age he dreamed of becoming an artist, and at 18 he left school to pursue this career. In 2007 he completed his first film, Moon Palace, a 100-minute film documenting his father's life.