Taxi
Fan Jian
Release year: 2008
Run time: 59 mins
Film type: Documentary
Synopsis
With his camera hidden in the back of a Beijing taxi, director Fan Jian manages to overhear the daily conversations between driver and passengers. In the cramped space of the car, customers share their secrets, their hopes, their conjectures about the future, and sometimes even offer advice to the driver. Disinhibited by physical proximity and anonymity, the protagonists share jokes during the journeys and give us a glimpse of the mentality of the inhabitants of the capital.
Director biography
Fan Jian is a documentary director who focuses on Chinese social issues through character-driven storytelling. He is a Documentary branch member of the Academy. Fan has directed six feature-length documentary films, including Still Tomorrow, winner of a Special Jury Award at IDFA 2016, and My Land , supported by the Sundance Documentary Fund. His work has also screened in competition at Hot Docs, Full Frame, Sheffield, Busan, and dozens of other film festivals around the world. Fan studied at the famed Beijing Film Academy and is now based in Chongqing, China.