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Transition Space

Wang Yang

Release year: 2007

Run time: 78 mins

Film type: Documentary

Synopsis

This film is an observation of the public space of the areas that links city and village. It tries to show the great changes of this age. Because of the rapid change of land ownership, the relationship between men and environment is changed also. Furthermore, the film tries to capture the vivid expressions and appearances of the people in this public space.

 

Director biography

Wang Yang, was born in Xi’an, China, and has an undergraduate degree in law. Since 2007, he has directed and produced four documentary films. Now he is an independent documentary director dedicated to documentary filmmaking. 2003:Founded Xianhu Culture, a website dedicating to the study of films, culture and history 2004: Participated in the filming of Wind Breeze Summer. Responsible for directing and the screenplay 2006: Participated in the HD film Sparrow 2007: Created Youth Film, a magazine dedicated to the new wave of Chinese cinema 2007: Founded Horizon Youth Film Studio 2007: Produced the documentary film Transition-Space which participated in various film festivals, including the Pingyao DV Film Festival 2007: Created Harvest Filmmaking Studio, which is dedicated to documenting the pain of contemporary Chinese society 2007: Curated “Exhibition of Films of Young Chinese Directors”. Produced the documentary films People of the New World and Young Screenplays: Ocean of Cui’s, East West, Earthquake Films: Experimental short film Going Home (16 mins) Documentary film On Your Mark (47 mins) Documentary film The Sound of Silence (146 mins) Documentary film Transition-Space (103 mins)

Director's statement

 In today’s China, the border of cities have already expanded to the core of the agricultural areas. The mega-university town of west China in Chang’an District of Xi’an is only one of the hundred battle fields of land that exist in China. The lost of land and the introduction of new ways of life bring anxiety, pain, and also optimistism to the people living there. Man and environment can never be separated. However, the land is fundamentally changed, with the disappearance of the farm land and building of modern university campus and commodity houses. The broad roads have destroyed the system of villages that has already in danger formerly. In this film, we did not observe all of this from a point o view of sociologist, but only as a documentary maker who observes these profound changes. In this context, I do not have the ambition to sustain a grand narrative, and what I want to do is to use the camera to look at those ordinary spaces in this complex world. I believe that the villages, university town, supermarket, building site of the real estates, the garden in the center of street, and the people, with their activities, expressions, languages, living in these spaces will tell us the secret of the piece of land. The anxious farmers who are so concerned about their future, the workers who sweat on the building site, a ceremony of marriage in a deserted village, the modern supermarket…all of this seem to indicate that people are trying to locate their new positions in this new world.