Poetry and Disease
Geng Jun
Release year: 2011
Run time: 93 mins
Film type: Documentary
Synopsis
The protagonist, Zhang Xixi, is a poet. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts at Tsinghua University, he became depressed under the enormous pressure of life in Beijing. Returning to his hometown of Hegang, he taught painting in a secondary school for a while. Later, he was admitted to hospital with schizophrenia. He thought writing poetry was a good way to recover. Now he still continues to write every day.
Director biography
Born in Heilongjiang Province in 1976, Geng Jun has directed and written many films. These include: Hawthorn (2002); Diary in Bulk (2003); Barbecue (2004 Festival of Three Continents, 2005 International Film Festival Rotterdam); Youth (2009 Rome International Film Festival); and The Hammer And Sickle Are Sleeping (2013 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Best Short Film winner). He also directed Poetry And Disease (2011). In 2017 his film Free and Easy was screened at Sundance, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Cinematic Vision.