MOVIES / FILMS / DOCUMENTARIES
Beijing Besieged by Waste by Wang Jiuliang: The film director traveled 15k km over two years in 16k km2 large Beijing municipality to film and photograph the city's shameful waste management and the downside of capitalist consumerism within a totalitarian regime.
Main ideas shown in the film
> solid waste being manually scavenged
> swill oil production
> Beijing is a city built on solid waste land fills
> consumption accelerates and nobody cares about the consequences
Conclusions:
> China is still a deeply unequal country, more so than other developed nations
> automated production must be balanced with automated solid waste recycling - manual waste segregation can never
keep up with the speed of highly efficient production powered by robots
and assembly lines
> it would be necessary to balance the movie with the situation in other nations e.g. Germany has dealt so far only with 1/3
of its solid waste dumps and most industrialized nations experienced similar periods of waste mismanagement during the 20th century 60-80ies, when consumption started to increase after WWII - China is not to be blamed, but to be supported to deal with these challenges
归途列车 | Last Train Home: A couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower.
Up the Yangtze: At the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.
China - Turmoil and Triumph: BBC documentary written and hosted by historian Niall Ferguson. Provides a fast insight into the last 150 years of China's decline and subsequent ascent.
Civilization: BBC documentary written and hosted by historian Niall Ferguson after his book with the same title. A lot of interesting details on how Far Eastern nations learn from Western achievements, and what they make even better than their teachers.
China, die neue Supermacht: 3 part documentary on French German TV station ARTE. Many other China documentaries here.
Die Chinesen kommen - Europas Rettung oder Untergang? great documentary that follows the go abroad strategy of Chinese companies and records the difficulties two different business cultures interacting with each other
Shanghai, Hauptstadt des 21.Jahrhunderts? Mit offenen Karten documentary about the dominant position of Shanghai within China and on a global scale.
TimeOut ranking of the 100 best mainland Chinese films
Sinica movie recommendations
Beijing Besieged by Waste by Wang Jiuliang: The film director traveled 15k km over two years in 16k km2 large Beijing municipality to film and photograph the city's shameful waste management and the downside of capitalist consumerism within a totalitarian regime.
Main ideas shown in the film
> solid waste being manually scavenged
> swill oil production
> Beijing is a city built on solid waste land fills
> consumption accelerates and nobody cares about the consequences
Conclusions:
> China is still a deeply unequal country, more so than other developed nations
> automated production must be balanced with automated solid waste recycling - manual waste segregation can never
keep up with the speed of highly efficient production powered by robots
and assembly lines
> it would be necessary to balance the movie with the situation in other nations e.g. Germany has dealt so far only with 1/3
of its solid waste dumps and most industrialized nations experienced similar periods of waste mismanagement during the 20th century 60-80ies, when consumption started to increase after WWII - China is not to be blamed, but to be supported to deal with these challenges
归途列车 | Last Train Home: A couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower.
Up the Yangtze: At the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.
China - Turmoil and Triumph: BBC documentary written and hosted by historian Niall Ferguson. Provides a fast insight into the last 150 years of China's decline and subsequent ascent.
Civilization: BBC documentary written and hosted by historian Niall Ferguson after his book with the same title. A lot of interesting details on how Far Eastern nations learn from Western achievements, and what they make even better than their teachers.
China, die neue Supermacht: 3 part documentary on French German TV station ARTE. Many other China documentaries here.
Die Chinesen kommen - Europas Rettung oder Untergang? great documentary that follows the go abroad strategy of Chinese companies and records the difficulties two different business cultures interacting with each other
Shanghai, Hauptstadt des 21.Jahrhunderts? Mit offenen Karten documentary about the dominant position of Shanghai within China and on a global scale.
TimeOut ranking of the 100 best mainland Chinese films
Sinica movie recommendations
