Chen Junhua

After a deadly fire in a Beijing migrant workers’ housing block in 2017, authorities launched sweeping safety inspections, forcibly evicting residents and demolishing homes. The filmmaker follows workers across urban villages, observing their livelihoods and reflecting on class realities under China’s household registration system.

A once-prosperous coal mining town is now in decline, as Chinese economic policy has pivoted away from coal. Through the director’s own family, the film depicts the source of life—mined from the darkness of 800 meters underground—that has given, as well as taken away from them.

After a deadly fire in a Beijing migrant workers’ housing block in 2017, authorities launched sweeping safety inspections, forcibly evicting residents and demolishing homes. The filmmaker follows workers across urban villages, observing their livelihoods and reflecting on class realities under China’s household registration system.

After a deadly fire in a Beijing migrant workers’ housing block in 2017, authorities launched sweeping safety inspections, forcibly evicting residents and demolishing homes. The filmmaker follows workers across urban villages, observing their livelihoods and reflecting on class realities under China’s household registration system.

A once-prosperous coal mining town is now in decline, as Chinese economic policy has pivoted away from coal. Through the director’s own family, the film depicts the source of life—mined from the darkness of 800 meters underground—that has given, as well as taken away from them.

A once-prosperous coal mining town is now in decline, as Chinese economic policy has pivoted away from coal. Through the director’s own family, the film depicts the source of life—mined from the darkness of 800 meters underground—that has given, as well as taken away from them.

A once-prosperous coal mining town is now in decline, as Chinese economic policy has pivoted away from coal. Through the director’s own family, the film depicts the source of life—mined from the darkness of 800 meters underground—that has given, as well as taken away from them.