documentary Posts

Oct212011

Posted By
Ryan

Interview with Charles Custer, director of ‘Living With Dead Hearts’

Nearly a year ago I posted about a documentary film being made by ChinaGeek‘s founder (and one-time Lost Laowai contributor), Charlie Custer.

The film, now titled Living With Dead Hearts, explores the issue of kidnapped children in China and how it affects the parents, the children and the whole community. And it needs your help to finish being made.

Earlier this week on his blog Imagethief, Will Moss wrote a poignant and humorous post that couldn’t have summed up better why, as a new father, this issue touches me deeply. So rather than rehash that point here with half the quality of Will’s post, please go read it.

After you’ve done that, please take a moment to watch the following trailer for the film, read my interview below with Charlie and consider giving what you can to help this film be made.

May242011

8Comments

Posted By
Ryan

Review: Last Train Home

There’s an undeniable disconnect between being a foreigner in China and being a Chinese in China. Yeah, I know, thank you Captain Obvious. As self-evident as that statement is, it’s sometimes easy to neglect the truth in it and ignore the consequences of what it is to be Chinese in China.

Maybe this is only true for me, but when I first arrived in China I was fascinated with everything. I sucked it all in like a sponge. Every discarded baijiu bottle, weathered shoe repair person, steamy baozi vendor… it was all so noticeable. But after a time these things, and the millions of others of still frames that blur together to form a tapestry of modern China, began to blend into the background as I just got on with living. I shifted from being a curious tourist to a preoccupied resident.

Which is why I’m grateful for having caught Last Train Home, a documentary by Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Fan Lixin, as it re-humanized the mass of strangers just off the edge of my doorstep.

Dec072010

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Posted By
Ryan

China Geeks helping Chinese children find home

Our friends at ChinaGeeks.org have recently started an ambitious new project that I have been meaning to find the time to write about for a couple weeks now. Check out this video for an introduction to “Finding Home”, a documentary that will explore on a personal level the terrible practice of kidnapping and selling children in China:

The film needs all our of help to be made. If you have any means to, please consider donating what you can. Here is a note from the documentary’s director, well-known China blogger (and one time Lost Laowai contributor), Charlie Custer:

May062008

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Posted By
Ryan

Boomtown Beijing – A coversation with Tan Siok Siok

Last summer acclaimed documentary filmmaker Tan Siok Siok headed out into the streets of Beijing with a rather ambitious goal of capturing the essence of the city and its people the summer before the Olympics. The result is Boomtown Beijing, a film that paints a picture of not just a city or the sporting event [...]