Two films from Caochangdi Workstation

Wu Wenguang is often referred to as the “Godfather of Chinese documentary.” After quitting his job as a journalist at a state-backed television station at the end of the 1980s, Wu borrowed equipment from former colleagues and made Bumming in Beijing (1990), the first independently-produced documentary in China. He continued directing documentaries through the 1990s and 2000s, including 1966, My Time in the Red Guards (1993), At Home in the World (1995), Dance with Farm Workers (2001), and F*ck Cinema (2005). Along with his partner Wen Hui, in 2005 he opened the Caochangdi Workstation (CCD). The space operates as a hub for documentary screenings, dance performances, video art, and filmmaking practice.

The founding of the Memory Project in 2010 allowed Wu to turn his energies towards mentorship, enabling him to produce dozens of documentaries by aspiring filmmakers. In addition to teaching them in the fundamentals of documentary filmmaking, Wu and Wen Hui have collaborated with students on a series of group movement performances that seek to echo the themes of hunger, desperation, hope, and loss that are central to the Memory Project interviews about events including the Great Leap Forward, the Great Famine, and the Cultural Revolution. The Duke University library has committed itself to cataloguing and maintaining a digital archive of interviews from the Memory Project, which serve as an invaluable repository of oral histories describing twentieth-century Chinese village life. Over the past several years, Wu has led filmmaker/dancer groups on tours of universities and festivals across the world. This is his third trip to UC Santa Barbara.

Zhang Mengqi graduated from the Dance Academy of Minzu University of China in 2008 and began working as a resident filmmaker and choreographer at the Caochangdi Workstation in 2009. Over the past decade, she has repeatedly returned to her father’s family village to direct an ever-deepening catalogue of films examining life in that community, which is located 47 km away from the nearest city. During her journeys to the village, she has also spearheaded the creation of a monument to local residents who perished in the Great Famine and the establishment of a library for children. The films in Zhang’s remarkable series include: Self-portrait with Three Women (2010), Self-Portrait: At 47KM (2011), Self-Portrait: Dancing at 47KM (2012), Self-Portrait: Dreaming at 47KM (2013), Self-Portrait: Building a bridge at 47KM (2014), Self-Portrait: Dying at 47KM (2015), Self-Portrait: Birth in 47KM (2016), and Self-Portrait: Window at 47KM (2019). In addition to her documentary work, she continues to freelance as a choreographer and dancer in China.