Cui Jian

This documentary is made up of three threads that provide a major retrospective of a decade of Chinese rock.

A rock musician looks for his girl-friend who left while pregnant, trying to decide whether to keep the baby.

A voyage through modern day Beijing in the taxi of the womanising Dezi. His aimless drifting between destinations and women is much like Beijing's own search for identity between perishing ancient values and an uncertain future.

A polyptych of interconnected stories in different time-zones, shifting between a Yunnan village, a campus, and the Gobi Desert.

Crowned as the “godfather of China rock” and yet banned from large-scale performances in Beijing over the past thirteen years, Cui Jian has made his come back in 2005 and remained an icon of the artist versus the State in the hearts of millions. Although the rocker has been reluctant to be identified with any specific political movement, whenever a new democratic voice has emerged (in media forms from underground film to the Internet), it has always found a way to embrace him, thus reconfirming Cui’s “outlaw” status. This documentary reviews his life and career paths from his early days and documents his crew and fans to three very different cities in Wuhan, Inner Mongolia and Beijing. Broadcast on HK Cable TV in summer 2006, the purpose of the video is to review Cui Jian’s career at the point of his new album release after a 6 year gap. The album is titled “Give You Color”.

The one directorial feature by Ning Dai, sister of 5th generation filmmaker Ning Ying and wife of 6th generation filmmaker Zhang Yuan. It follows a chaotic period in November of 1993, when production suddenly halted on Zhang Yuan's TV film adaptation of a popular novel, Chicken Feathers, after the Chinese Film Bureau announced that Zhang could no longer direct the film due to submitting his previous independent feature, 1992's Beijing Bastards, to a film festival in Japan without receiving the proper authorization to do so. Ning's documentary features anguished meetings between the Chicken Feather's production crew as they debate replacing Zhang with another director, along with testimonials on the state of censorship in Chinese independent cinema of the early '90s from Wu Wenguang, Tang Danian, He Jianjun, Cui Jian, and others.

In 2006 the Rolling Stones made their debut performance in mainland China, bringing one of the most renowned Rock and Roll live acts to the other side of the world. Featuring interviews with long-time production manager Dale “Opie” Skjerseth and the godfather of Chinese rock Cui Juan, ‘From London To Shanghai’ explores behind the scenes of the historic concert.

Cui Jian concert film recorded in December of 1992 by independent filmmaker Zhang Yuan.

Sitian, a Chinese American conductor, returns to China to give a concert and to find her three siblings again, after having been separated from them for years after the death of their parents.

Highlights the rebellious young generation of artists in China fighting for political emancipation, artistic freedom and creating a cultural golden age during the 1980s - a significant decade of transformational change. Interweaving six main characters' memories with the director's personal narration, the film embarks on an emotional journey and tells a story of being passionate and idealistic before dreams are dashed to pieces.

Chang-ho, 12, becomes friends with a North-Korean immigrant about the same age who just crossed the Dooman river, border between North-Korea and China. His mute sister and his wise grandfather accompany him through a series of misfortunes.

An unhappy love story under the Cultural Revolution in China seen from the son who was born from that romance - who is now a Chinese rock star

In the 1990s, a group of students on the campus of the Chinese Southern Academy of Arts are pursuing their studies and preparing to face the world. China is opening up to the West and the students’ lives are a tangle of love stories and friendships, artistic research, ideals and ambitions brought about by new influences. Caught between tradition and modernity, they have to decide who they want to become.

A rock musician looks for his girl-friend who left while pregnant, trying to decide whether to keep the baby.

A rock musician looks for his girl-friend who left while pregnant, trying to decide whether to keep the baby.

During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to interrogate the prisoners. The townspeople then struggle to accommodate the prisoners. One is a bellicose Japanese nationalist, the other a nervous translator. Will the townspeople manage to keep the prisoners until the New Year?

A satirical comedy set during the 1976 earthquake of Tangshan, which then zips forward to 2009 offering a Matrix-like science fiction story of contemporary China.