Memory Project Films: "Self-Portrait at 47KM" and "Treatment"

Harvard University presents a screening of the films "Self-Portrait at 47KM" and "Treatment".

About the Memory Project
In the summer of 2009, Wu Wenguang, widely considered the godfather of independent documentary filmmaking in China, began a project to chronicle the events that took place during the “three year famine” period between 1959 and 1961. By the summer of 2010, Wu had assembled a group of 21 participating filmmakers at his Caochangdi Workstation in Beijing to contribute to this landmark “folk memory project.”

Among the filmmakers were some individuals with prior experience in documentary production, others with backgrounds in theater and the arts, as well as young university students. The participants went back to their hometowns and villages to conduct interviews and document their experiences. Since the project began, some 700 individuals coming from 17 provinces and 110 villages have been interviewed.

6:00 pm       

Self-Portrait at 47KM (2011)
Director Zhang Mengqi will be present to answer questions
In Zhang Mengqi's second “self-portrait,” she explores her oddly-named ancestral village, “47 KM,” which lies 47 kilometers from her family's home in Suizhou, Hubei province.  Her grandfather still lives there, and through the filmmaking process, Zhang gains a better understanding of not only her grandfather but also other old villagers who endured the Great Leap famine. (77 min., English subtitles)

7:30 pm       

Treatment (2010)
Director Wu Wenguang will be present to answer questions
Pulling from 12 years of footage, Wu Wenguang constructs an essay film on memory and self-knowledge that is at once a memorial to his deceased mother and an attempt to bring her back to life in order to assist his own process of healing. (80 min., English subtitles)

Wu Wenguang was born in southwest China’s Yunnan province in 1956. After graduating from high school in 1974, he was sent to the countryside, where he worked as a farmer for four years. Between 1978 and 1982, he studied Chinese literature in Yunnan University. After his studies, Wu worked as a teacher at a junior high school, and later, worked in television as a journalist. Wu left television and moved to Beijing in 1988 to become an independent documentary filmmaker, freelance writer, and director/producer of dance and theater. Wu has completed ten documentaries, including Bumming in Beijing (1990), 1966, My Time in the Red Guards (1993), Jiang Hu: Life on the Road (1999), Fuck Cinema (2005), Treatment (2010); and his films have been screened at many prestigious film festivals around the world. He has also published four books of non-fiction.