**News of China Villager Documentary Project (2007-7)

In May, 2007, the first workshop of the phase II (development) from China Villager Documentary Project has been taken place in the Caochangdi Workstation Art Center, Beijing. There are three villager filmmakers were invited to come to the Workstation for the workshop which edit for their new documentaries. The phase II of China Villager Documentary Project has got the grant from Arts Network Asia (ANA).

Three Villager filmmakers stayed in the workstation for three weeks, and discussed about their new film projects with curator Wu Wenguang and Jiang Yi. After the workshop, they completed 5 films in the first editing. During they stay in the Workstation, they participated the May Festival which took place there, and had screen one of their new film, also had communication with young filmmakers who are from local Beijing. As well they were been the Film Forum of the festival, had chance to see a number of new Chinese independent documentaries.

During three villager filmmakers stay in the Workstation, the 9 members of ANA, Ong Keng Sen, Tran Luong, etc, and the director manager Tay Tong visited the workshop.

The second workshop of the phase II will be taken in September. Four young filmmakers or artists who are from the Southeast Asia will visit the workshop and have exchange during the workshop.

**Villager's DV Rooms under construction

During the May Festival, Jia Zhitan, one of the ten villager filmmakers, brought forward a proposal to build a "Villager's DV Room" in his home village. Mr. Jia proposed that his DV Room be "a video screening room located in the village committee office or any public space of his home village." According to Jia Zhitan, this Villager's DVD Room will be designed in a viewer-friendly way and will be dedicated to screening documentary films produced by Chinese villagers, documentaries chosen by his fellow villagers and films related to agricultural science. Mr. Jia explained that this is a proposal in line with the state policy of "building the socialist countryside," which will provide villagers with opportunities to learn, as an effective alternative to playing mah-jong , currently a favorite pastime for most villagers.

Jia Zhitan's proposal was welcomed by everyone, especially by the other villager filmmakers who were also at the workstation during the May Festival. A consensus of the village filmmakers was that a DV Room should be set up at the home village of everybody. Apart from Jia Zhitan, as of now, two other filmmakers -- Zhou Cengjia and Zhang Huancai, have also been actively engaging themselves in planning a DV Rooms in their home village. They need to first find a public space (either inside the village committee office or a house in the village), some stools or chairs, and someone to take care of the space. Once these are set, Caochangdi Workstation will equip each DV Room with a DVD player and a TV set.

(June 9, 2006)

**Jia Zhitan starting Township Orange Co-Operative at his home province of Hu'nan

May 11, 2006 saw inauguration of the Organizing Committee for Orange Co-Operative of Baiyun Township, initiated by Jia Zhitan. Since then, the committee, led by a nine-member board of directors, has enjoyed great popularity among the township's 20,000 odd orange growers, many of whom are hoping to join the Co-Op. In no way will the excitement of the preparation work escape the digital video camera of Jia Zhitan, who declared that he would "document [the Co-Op's] birth, success or even failure." The growers were told that once they join the Co-Op, they will never have to stand alone. In early December 2005, Jia Zhitan learned that Guan Yaying, a 83-year-old lady from a Korean War martyr's family of a neighboring village, had broken her legs while picking oranges and were confined to bed and suffering great pain because she could not afford medication. Jia Zhitan, feeling sympathetic, solicited help from the village committee and from the township and county authorities and eventually successfully secured RMB 800 to cover part of the elderly lady's medication. Mr. Jia feels thankful for the authorities and the officials who stepped in to provide help to the people.

(Original text written by Zhang Youliang of the Orange Plantation Office of the Shimen County Government, Hu’nan Province)


** 1st postproduction workshop of the project's Phase II

In May 2006, Wang Wei, Shao Yuzhen, Jia Zhitan, Zhou Cengjia and Zhang Huancai, five villager filmmakers who had completed a sufficient amount of footage for their second film, were invited to Caocaodi Workstaion, where they would participate in the first postproduction training workshop of the second phase of the villager documentary project. The five filmmakers spent the following three weeks learning how to use a computer and how to conduct non-linear video editing. Although four of the them had had no and one had had only very basic computer skills, the filmmakers learned the basic techniques of using Adobe Premiere, a non-linear video editing software. They then started editing their own films independently and eventually completed the rough editing of the following documentary films: Wang Wei (2 shorts), Zhou Cengjia (2 shorts), Shao Yuzhen (2 shorts), Jia Zhitan (4 shorts), Zhang Huancai (2 shorts and 1 feature length). The five filmmakers are exected to return to Caochangdi at the end of the year to embark upon the 2nd postproduction workshop in order to complete the final editing of their films. It is hoped that when they return, they will bring with them new footage to be added to the films.

The 1st postproduction training workshop coincided with Caochangdi's May Festival. The villager five filmmakers answered questions from the audience after the screening of the ten shorts made by the villagers. The villager filmmakers were also busy engaging themselves in all art events of the May Festival, which included watching more than ten documentaries produced by other filmmakers and participated in the discussions afterwards.

(May 20, 2006)

** Villager Documentary Project moving on

By the end of 2005, ten villager filmmakers had completed their individual ten-minute documentaries after the postproduction workshop of the "Village Governance Documentary Project"at Beijing's Caochangdi Workstation. Before leaving Beijing, the filmmakers expressed their wishes to continue filmmaking after they returned to their home villages. In an effort to support their initiatives, Caochangdi Workstation provided each of them with ten new mini DV tapes. During their discussions on the topics and themes for their next film projects, the filmmakers all agreed that they could work in their home village under broad themes, for instance, "My Village," or "the New Year."

The villager filmmakers have been communicating with Caochangdi regularly since they went home, mostly via emails and phone calls. Emails have become the single most important communication channel between the filmmakers and the Workstation. In their emails, the filmmakers discussed contents of their films and the progress they have made, as well as technical problems they encountered. As of April 2006, most filmmakers have been doing well in their shooting after work, while some are working on several topics simultaneously.
(April 20, 2006)