On March 28, the documentary film "Landing and Rooting" announced that it will be released in theaters nationwide on April 20. The film takes the story of the villagers of Shawa Village, Pihe Nu Township, Fugong County, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province as the main line, and tells the fate of this ancient village after four years and more than 1,000 days and nights under the background of poverty alleviation. The history of change is a condensed video record of poverty reduction in China.
The movie trailer focuses on "a road that affects generations" in Shawa Village: the local villagers walk on the difficult and dangerous mountain roads, and there is no road in and out of the mountains, which restricts their daily life and also causes the root of poverty in this remote village. Against the background of poverty alleviation, the road that the villagers have been waiting for for generations has been started, and the new life of Shawa Village has been unveiled since then.
Stills of "Landing Roots"
On March 17, "Landing and Rooting" held a special screening at the "2023 Poverty Reduction Governance and Global Development (Nujiang) International Forum". Focusing on the theme of "Drawing a New Blueprint for Rural Revitalization and Sharing New Opportunities for Global Development", the forum was attended by more than 190 diplomatic envoys, government officials, experts and scholars from 20 countries and 4 international organizations including the United Nations.
The Nujiang River in Yunnan was once the "main battlefield" for China's fight against poverty. The special screening of "Landing and Rooting" at the forum this time will tell the world the real story of China's poverty alleviation from the perspective of Shawa Village, Nujiang, Yunnan. During the screening, more than 20 foreign guests from all over the world watched with great concentration. Among them, Mr. Sohail Khan, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, couldn't wait to find the director after the screening, and expressed his hope to see more content of the film.
"In this movie, I want to express the determination and strength of the Chinese government in the poorest areas of China in this era in China. It also reflects our government's method of changing poverty and the people's desire to change their destiny. In fact, this This film is a vivid, real, and realistic archive. So at the end of the film, it said: I would like to dedicate this film to the people who have contributed to China's poverty reduction." In an interview after the screening, film director Chai Hongfang This explains the original intention of shooting.
Chai Hongfang, director of "Landing Roots"
Documentary films witness miracles with images
Shawa Village is located in the depths of the Biluo Snow Mountain in the Nujiang Grand Canyon, in the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province, one of the poorest "three districts and three states" in China. The traffic here is extremely inconvenient. There is only a small mountain road that can pass through the village, and carrying people on shoulders is the only way of transportation. The refrigerator in the villager’s home was broken, and the maintenance worker refused to go up the mountain on the grounds that “I’m afraid to take your Shawa mountain road”. The villagers had to walk for more than 4 hours and carried the refrigerator down the mountain to repair it; The men, taking turns carrying the stretcher, carried the patient down the mountain for treatment step by step...
These fragments of daily life were faithfully recorded in the documentary film "Landing and Rooting", and led to the core clue of the film-"I want a road", which is the common aspiration of the local villagers represented by Deng Ayan.
The Nu people living in Shawar Village, which has been isolated from the world for generations, belong to the rare "Zhiguo ethnic group". "Straight through the nationalities" specifically refers to the nationalities that have directly transitioned from primitive society to socialist society without democratic reform after the founding of New China.
The Zhiguo ethnic group mainly lives in Yunnan, located in a remote and secluded place with high mountains and deep valleys, including nine ethnic groups including Dulong, Nu, and Lisu. It is a "unique landscape" of ethnic minorities in Yunnan. They even retain the living habit of cutting firewood, bartering and hunting in the primitive society. Once, they lived in the poorest areas, were the most vulnerable group and the most special ethnic group. With the development of the country's poverty alleviation work, from 2019 to 2020, the ethnic groups will gradually get rid of the "millennium poverty", and realize the whole family's poverty alleviation-the millennium dream of getting rid of poverty, and it will come into reality. The land filmed in "Landing and Rooting" has experienced a miracle that can be called "one step across a thousand years" in just two or three years.
Stills of "Landing Roots"
Yin Hong, vice chairman of the China Film Association, believes that this film embodies the real power: "It is difficult to present the complexity and diversity of such a major project as poverty alleviation by screenwriting and dramatic presentation. This documentary It showed us a very rich process and details, provided real cases, and established a video archive of poverty alleviation."
Zhou Xinxia, president of the China Film Editing Association and also an editor of the film, said that this is her first time editing a documentary film, and she accepted the task because she was moved by the director's spirit. "In about 700 hours of massive shooting material, she carefully screened each shot, showing the effectiveness of poverty alleviation from the changes in the material life and spiritual outlook of ordinary people. The story contains tears, hardships, expectations, and laughter. , more hopeful."
Stills of "Landing Roots"
CCTV female director took root in the remotest village for 4 years
The creation of "Landing and Rooting" originated in 2017. CCTV director Chai Hongfang assembled a shooting team composed of 9 people from Beijing and Yunnan, planning to shoot a documentary film reflecting China's poverty alleviation. Chai Hongfang and other main creators conducted scouting in Yunnan Province, visited hundreds of villages in Yunnan, and finally chose Shawa Village as the shooting location.
Chai Hongfang, who was born in the army, said with a smile: "I always feel that I am in good health. The first time I went to Shawa Village, I didn't climb up. I sat halfway and I wanted to cry. I didn't expect that there are such inaccessible villages in China." The second time " Challenge "Shawar Village, they spent 6 hours and finally climbed up to Shawar step by step.
Before entering the village, Chai Hongfang and the entire creative team made preparations for a long-term stay. "Documentary films do not have scripts, and we must truly record the entire process of poverty alleviation in this mountain village, so the shooting cycle is also a big question mark in my heart."
The filming team lives in an abandoned elementary school in the local area. An abandoned elementary school classroom, three old desks, a few old benches, and a few computers form the post-production computer room; the dormitory is next to the villagers’ pigsty, and the team often Wake up to the snoring of sows and the noise of piglets; in summer, all kinds of bugs will crawl on the walls and beds of the room.
The environment is quite difficult, but the filming team stayed for four years. Shawa Village has been isolated from the outside world for a long time, and few outsiders came to the village. At first, the villagers hid or ran away quickly when they saw the filming team. This is a fatal obstacle for documentary filmmakers. In order to let the villagers put down their guard, Chai Hongfang learned the Nu dialect, went to the homes of various villagers, cooked for them, sang with them, and quickly became friends with them, and finally unearthed Poluo, a poverty-stricken household who had established a file , Li Jianhua, Zhu Yun, a poverty alleviation team member in the village, and Laba, the children's representative, are all vivid stories of little people.
Director Chai Hongfang said, "The changes in the fate of these little people are exactly the changes that China's poverty alleviation has brought to China's 700 million farmers. Although the characters and stories are small, they represent changes in a group and reflect the profound changes in Chinese society." During the more than 1,200 days and nights of living and filming in Shawa Village, all the main creators of the film overcame the harsh environment and creative difficulties, and presented the audience with a sincere work covered with mud, dewdrops, and steam.
Stills of "Landing Roots"
In 2020, Shawa Village will lift itself out of poverty. The four years of filming "Landing and Rooting" was the most critical moment for China's fight against poverty. In this special historical period, "Landing and Rooting" recorded this great era of change with real images.
The film has won the 11th Beijing International Film Festival Documentary Unit Recommended Works (Chinese Stories), the 19th China (Guangzhou) International Documentary Festival "Chinese Stories Excellent Documentary Feature Film" Award, and the Chinese Documentary Awards Social Category The first prize, the first Chinese Documentary Film Conference recommended works in the reality category and many other awards.
It is reported that "Landing and Rooting" will be released in theaters nationwide on April 20. At the same time, the film will be screened in hundreds of colleges and universities across the country, and will also be screened simultaneously in countries along the Belt and Road to achieve "simultaneous screenings on five continents", tell the real story of China's poverty reduction, and export China to the world in the face of the global issue of poverty alleviation. experience.
