Hu Jie

Dissident artist Hu Jie has managed to make more than 30 documentaries. Films like Though I Am Gone and Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul are vital to understanding Chinese history and society. Widely recognized as the first artist to dare talk about the Great Famine, the labor camps, and the Cultural Revolution, Hu Jie is considered China's first historical documentary filmmakers.

Filmmaker Hu Jie uncovers the tragic story of a teacher beaten to death by her students during the Cultural Revoution. In 1966, the Cultural Revolution exploded throughout China, as Mao's Red Guards persecuted suspected Rightists. Bian Zhongyun, the vice principal of a prestigious school in Beijing, was beaten to death by her own students, becoming one of the first victims of the revolutionary violence that would engulf the entire nation.

The launch and development of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution not only has a series of CCP Central Committee documents that have promoted wave after wave of movements, but also has various propaganda methods. A large number of different types of literary and artistic products have been produced in a collective form and with the input of the State. As a weapon of revolutionary struggle, works of art are important representatives of this period. Art was a tool for the Cultural Revolution; it fully embodies its aesthetic characteristics, actively cooperating with the development of various movements and the popularization of ideas. It has cultivated the values ​​and visual experience of a generation of Chinese people — the paintings of the Cultural Revolution have been regarded as treasures by Chinese collectors. This film shows the characteristics of the Cultural Revolution paintings through a large number of paintings, as well as the bloody violence and despotism behind them.

Spark was an underground publication that emerged in Gansu province in 1960, and was centered on the ongoing famine and the Great Leap Forward. Ultimately, 43 people, including the Rightist teachers and students who were connected with the publication, the peasants and the rural cadres who sympathized with them, were arrested and given long prison terms. Among them, three key figures were executed during the Cultural Revolution.

No synopsis available yet.

This is a documentary about coal miners. In the Qilian mountains of Qinghai Province, where the altitude is over 3,600 meters and the air thin, there are numerous small coal mines in which work around 200 miners aged 17 to 50. Every day, they must crawl through pits 60 to 70 metres deep just to carry out 30 loads of coal. Each load weighs 50 kilograms. The miners earn 500 yuan a month, without insurance. Miners normally suffer from pneumoconiosis after working four or five years in the mine and cannot work thereafter. They usually spend their wages on building houses, marriage, and tuition fees for their children. If they die in an accident, their family receives a 5,000 yuan pension. This film is a record of these working conditions, and of human labour. (Shot June 1995.)

No synopsis available yet.

Filmmaker Hu Jie uncovers the tragic story of a teacher beaten to death by her students during the Cultural Revoution. In 1966, the Cultural Revolution exploded throughout China, as Mao's Red Guards persecuted suspected Rightists. Bian Zhongyun, the vice principal of a prestigious school in Beijing, was beaten to death by her own students, becoming one of the first victims of the revolutionary violence that would engulf the entire nation.

The launch and development of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution not only has a series of CCP Central Committee documents that have promoted wave after wave of movements, but also has various propaganda methods. A large number of different types of literary and artistic products have been produced in a collective form and with the input of the State. As a weapon of revolutionary struggle, works of art are important representatives of this period. Art was a tool for the Cultural Revolution; it fully embodies its aesthetic characteristics, actively cooperating with the development of various movements and the popularization of ideas. It has cultivated the values ​​and visual experience of a generation of Chinese people — the paintings of the Cultural Revolution have been regarded as treasures by Chinese collectors. This film shows the characteristics of the Cultural Revolution paintings through a large number of paintings, as well as the bloody violence and despotism behind them.

The launch and development of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution not only has a series of CCP Central Committee documents that have promoted wave after wave of movements, but also has various propaganda methods. A large number of different types of literary and artistic products have been produced in a collective form and with the input of the State. As a weapon of revolutionary struggle, works of art are important representatives of this period. Art was a tool for the Cultural Revolution; it fully embodies its aesthetic characteristics, actively cooperating with the development of various movements and the popularization of ideas. It has cultivated the values ​​and visual experience of a generation of Chinese people — the paintings of the Cultural Revolution have been regarded as treasures by Chinese collectors. This film shows the characteristics of the Cultural Revolution paintings through a large number of paintings, as well as the bloody violence and despotism behind them.

The launch and development of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution not only has a series of CCP Central Committee documents that have promoted wave after wave of movements, but also has various propaganda methods. A large number of different types of literary and artistic products have been produced in a collective form and with the input of the State. As a weapon of revolutionary struggle, works of art are important representatives of this period. Art was a tool for the Cultural Revolution; it fully embodies its aesthetic characteristics, actively cooperating with the development of various movements and the popularization of ideas. It has cultivated the values ​​and visual experience of a generation of Chinese people — the paintings of the Cultural Revolution have been regarded as treasures by Chinese collectors. This film shows the characteristics of the Cultural Revolution paintings through a large number of paintings, as well as the bloody violence and despotism behind them.

Spark was an underground publication that emerged in Gansu province in 1960, and was centered on the ongoing famine and the Great Leap Forward. Ultimately, 43 people, including the Rightist teachers and students who were connected with the publication, the peasants and the rural cadres who sympathized with them, were arrested and given long prison terms. Among them, three key figures were executed during the Cultural Revolution.

This is a documentary about coal miners. In the Qilian mountains of Qinghai Province, where the altitude is over 3,600 meters and the air thin, there are numerous small coal mines in which work around 200 miners aged 17 to 50. Every day, they must crawl through pits 60 to 70 metres deep just to carry out 30 loads of coal. Each load weighs 50 kilograms. The miners earn 500 yuan a month, without insurance. Miners normally suffer from pneumoconiosis after working four or five years in the mine and cannot work thereafter. They usually spend their wages on building houses, marriage, and tuition fees for their children. If they die in an accident, their family receives a 5,000 yuan pension. This film is a record of these working conditions, and of human labour. (Shot June 1995.)

In 1957, two hundred teachers, students, and cadres were labeled as "Rightists" for voicing criticism of the Communist Party and sent to the East Wind State Farm in southwest China. As part of China's disastrous Great Leap Forward, these inmates were forced to take part in ill-conceived deforestation, agricultural and industrial projects that led to wide-scale famine. Later they endured the Cultural Revolution when their camp was visited by large groups of "sent-down" youth from the cities. After 21 years of "remolding," the "Rightists" were finally "rehabilitated" in 1978 and allowed to leave in 1978. THE EAST WIND STATE FARM re-examines the tragic events of Chinese modern history during the height of Maoist rule. Director Hu Jie collects dozens of extensive interviews with both inmates and staff who served through three decades of the camp's existence.

Hu County, in suburban Xi’an, is famous for its peasant paintings, produced in 1958 during the Great Leap Forward. It became particularly famous during the Cultural Revolution, when these works were hailed as model paintings. In 2005, the directors visited the county and interviewed both the painters and their teachers. Comparing different political languages and artistic imaginings across the ages, the film draws on diverse sources: old documentary film clips, new propaganda paintings, Beijing Opera in the local “Qin” accent, and traces of the old amongst the new. All these elements are engaged to help us better understand the painters and the phenomenon of propaganda paintings

By following the case of Huang Jing, a woman teacher who died of date rape, this documentary captures changes in China between 2003 and 2005, before and after the injunction to respect and protect human rights was incorporated into the constitution. By highlighting grassroots activity by women, the film illustrates awareness of human rights, women’s struggle against judicial corruption, and women taking action against domestic violence in China.

This landmark documentary reveals the tragic life of a gifted young woman who was executed for speaking out during the height of Chairman Mao’s rule.

This landmark documentary reveals the tragic life of a gifted young woman who was executed for speaking out during the height of Chairman Mao’s rule.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, in an attempt to stop the spread of AIDS, the Chinese government sought a “purer” blood supply from its rural population. Burdened by agricultural taxes and rising costs of education and health care, many peasants sold blood to state and private blood-collectors. Due to lack of sanitary control, a large number of blood-sellers were infected with HIV. Starting from the mid-1990s, AIDS villages multiplied.

In order to find such a fittingly inspiring matchmaker, the director visited nearly 10 matchmakers and finally selected the matchmaker in the film. The director then followed the matchmaker and witnessed the vicissitudes of life. In addition to the land, there is no form of art that can describe the heaviness of life and emotion. (Shot August 1995)

Hu Jie and Ai Xiaoming co-directed short film.

This film tells the story of a war in Tibet in 1912 through information and descendants of the Western Expeditionary Army.

In the spring of 2004, a female graduate student was killed at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, but it was confirmed on the school's website that girls should not refuse male love. This film documents how Chinese professor Ai Xiaoming led the fight back against such patriarchal thinking.

One of Hu Jie's 'Farmers Working in the City' films. The city is developing rapidly, with tall buildings and highways. Behind this bustling city, there is such a group of people. They come from the countryside. Maybe they are not dressed well, or they have only finished elementary school, but they work hard with their own work. The piece of prosperity pays its youth and sweat. (Shot between 1997 and 1998.)

Wang Peiying, a widow with seven children, was a worker at the Ministry of Railways. The famine precipitated by the Great Leap Forward, which killed perhaps 30 million people by the early 1960s, had horrified her, and as political turmoil began again only a few years later, she publicly called on China’s leader, Mao Zedong, to take responsibility for his mistakes and resign. Ms. Wang was sent to a psychiatric hospital and drugged. Released and paraded around the capital, she refused to recant. Instead, she repeated her accusations. Her jaw was broken to stop her from talking. After a mass trial at the Workers’ Stadium on Jan. 27, 1970, she was executed.

A folk song echoed on the Shandong Plain. This is the song of Luo Xiaojia, a Yunnan Yi girl who was trafficked to the Shandong Plain at the age of 17, and now she has lived in rural Shandong for seven years. After coming to Shandong, she was forced to marry a young farmer and received a marriage certificate. The film documents her family life in the unfamiliar Shandong countryside, her thoughts about her hometown and her views on destiny. Luo Xiaojia's tenth year in Shandong Province, she finally won the right to go home. After a journey of 4,000 kilometers, she returned to her hometown of Yunnan and saw her mother who she missed day and night. But she was caught in a contradiction. Finally, she asked her mother to sing a lot of folk songs for her, and she returned to Shandong with those sad folk songs.

Like most local young women, Xiaohua met Chunling, a young man from another village, through a matchmaker and chose a good day to get married. After marriage, they live with Chunling's parents. The young couple fall in love with each other and give birth to a baby boy. According to the requirements of the national family planning policy, first-born males in rural areas cannot have further children. But farmers have their own ideas. A family should not have only boys, but also girls. If there are no boys, they will do everything possible to have boys to continue the family line. Therefore, the township government sends a family planning team. At the risk of being fined, Xiao Hua becomes pregnant again. When she’s in labor, Chunling finds a midwife. They successfully give birth to a baby girl. To avoid being arrested, Chunling takes initiative to pay a 3,000 fine. The couple leave their children with family and go to work in Beijing. (Shot from 1996-2007)

Hu Jie short film.

This is a short documentary about a daughter who has been searching for the truth about her father’s death during the Cultural Revolution, but whom has found nothing.

This is a poem that asks about human nature, the world, friendship, love and faith.

In order to participate in "International Day Against Violence to Women," in 2003, Eve Ensler pioneering feminist drama was adapted by teachers and students of the Sun Yat-sen University Gender Education Forum in Mainland China, adding an artistic interpretation of the gendered experiences of Chinese women. It was performed at the Guangdong Museum of Art. But in a country that talks publicly about sex changes, teachers and students encountered responses they could not have imagined. This film records what happened to these teachers and students following the performance of The Vagina Monologues.

One of Hu Jie's 'Farmers Working in the City' films. The city is developing rapidly, with tall buildings and highways. Behind this bustling city, there is such a group of people. They come from the countryside. Maybe they are not dressed well, or they have only finished elementary school, but they work hard with their own work. The piece of prosperity pays its youth and sweat. (Shot between 1997 and 1998)

Because of difficulties where they live in the north east of China, a husband and wife go back to their hometown in Shandong Province and settle in their hometown by the sea with three children. With no land of their own, they have to face the sea, and start their life again.

One of Hu Jie's 'Farmers Working in the City' films. The city is developing rapidly, with tall buildings and highways. Behind this bustling city, there is such a group of people. They come from the countryside. Maybe they are not dressed well, or they have only finished elementary school, but they work hard with their own work. The piece of prosperity pays its youth and sweat. (Shot between 1997 and 1998)

This documentary records the journey of Zhang Xianchi from a communist Chinese soldier to a prisoner and a writer of independent mind, in some ways just like Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian writer. Mr. Zhang’s book, The Anecdotes of Gelagu, takes us to China’s gulag---a Sichuan laogai camp. The book details an unknown and atrocious episode of history, allowing us to witness human nature under extreme circumstances.

Unreleased Hu Jie film.

Unreleased Hu Jie film.

In 1959, a group of intellectual “Rightists” from colleges and universities in Shenyang, and criminals from prisons, arrived in the desolate area of western Liaoning Province. They wanted to build a railway here for a mine. Taking the fate of Yin Shaoyao, a lecturer at Liaoning University, as its focus, this film records this group’s experience of being labelled as rightists, of “Reform through Labour”, of being starved, and killed. Their personal files reveal the details of their transformation: their personalities encouraged them to betray each other, incriminating materials were put in their files, and their political lives were destroyed. Ideological reformation killed their spirit, while physical labour and hunger destroyed their bodies. The film also records how people who resisted were suppressed and what happened to people’s humanity in this most cruel of environments.

A group of ancient Tibetan nomads live in the Qilian Mountains in western China. Their home is a tent made of yak hair. They change their location with the seasons — to allow their cattle and sheep to eat the best grass, while protecting the vegetation of the pasture. They stick to their traditional beliefs. The women chant scriptures from time to time while turning prayer wheels. In the evening, devout rituals are performed in front of small portraits of the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama. During migration, the families help each other pack their belongings and load them onto yaks; they ride horses, sing pastoral songs, and drive cattle and sheep along the ancient nomadic route. This film documents their journey — from the spring to the autumn. It is a spiritual and a practical life: Sheep are exchanged for yaks, wool for tea, fried noodles for money. Every cloud over the mountain has a divine nature; the sun and the moon are the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama. (Shot June 1995.)

Baobao and Beibei are twins and live in Nanjing. When they were three-and-a-half years old, their parents were laid off. To secure their the children's future, their parents choose for Baobao and Beibei to be gymnast, because the school sports coach had praised them. In order to train sports stars, amateur sports schools conduct cruel training on young children. Parents also have to obey the coach’s request and force their children to practice exercises. They believe that sports are a fair competition, and, as long as they are hard-hearted and push their children to the top, they will have bright prospects. Baobao and Beibei spent their childhood training like this. Their ideal is to participate in the Olympics, win gold medals for their country, and buy a house for their parents.

In the years before 1995, young artists who pursued free creativity came from all over the country to Yuanmingyuan, in the western suburbs of Beijing. These people settled in the rental houses of the village farmers, and then ambitiously bought paint-stretched canvases to explore and create art. The biggest difficulty they face is to make up for the monthly rent to be paid to the landlord. Selling paintings is not their only means of survival; they would also rely on other crafts to maintain their lives. Their works were very different; they have a spirit of rebellion, and they do not conform to traditional aesthetics. This is what caused Sate officials to intervene. (Shot May–December 1995.)

Contemporary art has become a trend for young people in China. Young artists often organize activities in the form of art groups or small groups — but this is not only looked down on by the government, but is also subject to punishments and restrictions. This film documents a gathering of more than 200 artists in Nanjing, all from different regions of China, who to engage in a modern art activity titled "Bask in the sunshine."

Folk theater is a representation of local culture in China — a reflection of its characteristics. Hu Jie filmed a mobile theater troupe's performance and as well their backstage drama. This is a Henan opera troupe; they perform in rural areas of Henan and Shandong. They contact village officials in advance, negotiate a price, and then come to perform. Such performances are welcomed by the villagers. The troupe is a closed small society. There is a strict hierarchical system inside: The protagonist of the troupe is usually invited from the state-run troupe to support the scene. These people eat delicious and spicy food, and the boss treats them indifferently. But child actors are like child labor in the troupe. Children are called apprentices, but are actually exploited and used like slaves. Children slowly grow into actors, and then find a partner in the troupe and get married. Women similarly are not treated well — they shine on the stage, but off-stage they're abused.

This film narrates the tragic events that unfolded at Jiabian Gou Farm from 1958 to December 1960, resulting in the deaths of over two thousand individuals due to exhaustion and starvation. Originally a labor reform farm housing prisoners in Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, Jiabian Gou Farm was transformed in 1958 into a facility for re-educating labor inmates. It also took in over three thousand individuals labeled as rightists from Gansu, including university professors, county-level officials, military officers, professionals from various industries, and teachers from different schools. Amid the political terror of the Great Leap Forward, extravagant claims flourished, and an atmosphere of self-preservation and selective reporting of positive news prevailed. This environment led to instances of cannibalism being overlooked, even as people continued to starve to death.

This film highlights the collapse of Nanyang Education Group, the flagship of private education in China. Other private school principals, teachers and students, as well as scholars who study education, and some government officials were interviewed. They discuss the causes from different angles. Due to the marketization of education, in order to ensure their vested interests, public schools that originally held public educational resources have adopted strategies such as "prestigious schools building branch schools" and "prestigious schools running private schools" to privatize public educational resources in order to enjoy exclusive market share. The education management department is also willing to profit from such practices and use this competition to eliminate the idea of independent and pluralistic education. Under the protection of the monopoly of privileged interests and the "Promotion Law", many outstanding private schools shut down.

In the mountains of China's Qinghai Province, there are countless small coal mines. The miners are all rural residents who live nearby, and their bodies are covered in coal dust from all the coal they must dig out each day to earn 500 yuan a month. The film records how they labour, the sounds of their heavy breathing, and what they see working far underground, while cherishing dreams of a better life, such as the kind we live.

The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into a communist society through the formation of people's communes.