FESTIVALS: *Sydney Film Festival (Australia) * Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (Greece) * DocsBarcelona (Spain) * New Zealand Film Festival Trust (Wellington , New Zealand) * Belfast Film Festival (Northern Ireland.) * DocumentaMadrid (Spain) * Bergen International Film Festival (Norway) * DOXA Documentary Film Festival (Vancouver, BC, Canada) * EIDF (Seoul, South Korea) * Brisbane International Film Festival (Australia) * Cinemigrante (Buenos Aires, Argentina) * Trento Film Festival (Italy) * Cineteca de Madrid (Spain) * Boulder International Film Festival (USA) * Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (USA) * Asiatica Filmmediale (Rome, Italy) * Cleveland International Film Festival (USA) * Tales from Planet Earth (Madison, USA) * Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (The Netherlands) * Lighthouse International Film Festival (Beach Haven, USA) * Coalmine (Switzerland) * UrbanEye Film Festival (Bucharest, Romania) * Asian Film Festival of Dallas (USA)
AWARDS: * EIDF 2013 Unicef Award
FALLEN CITY
Category |
Environment, Human Interest, Human Rights
Year |
2012
Country |
China
Running time |
90' - 55'
Format |
HD
Production |
Qi Films
Director |
Qi Zhao
When an earthquake struck the Chinese mountain city of Beichuan on May 12, 2008, it was completely destroyed. Twenty thousand people died, leaving their families devastated. Fallen City zooms in on the family lives of three survivors, who are marked by painful memories and deep sadness. Mr. Peng is a devoted father who lost his daughter in the rubble. The trauma that he and his wife are suffering stands in the way of rebuilding their life.
Divorcee Mrs. Li explains that she lives only for her paralyzed mother and for her job as a district chief. Fourteen-year-old Hong lost his father in the earthquake and has to struggle through high school, distanced from his less-than-loving mother. Both the inhabitants of Beichuan and the city itself are torn between life as it used to be and modernity. Peng and his wife are stopped by soldiers when, as part of a traditional ritual, they want to burn money where their daughter died, while Hong's mother is annoyed by the video games her son is playing. Meanwhile, several miles from where the rubble has piled up like a garbage dump, a new city is being built at breakneck speed - a city that is supposed to offer the survivors a better life.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Zhao Qi, a Wuhan-native, is an international documentary filmmaker based in Beijing. He was Co-Producer of the Last Train Home, directed by Lixin Fan, and China Heavy Weight, directed by Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze).
Qi’s directorial feature Fallen City follows the survivors of the Sichuan earthquake and was supported by Sundance Grant, ITVS, and the IDFA Jan Vrijman Fund. One of China’s only international producers and directors, Zhao Qi secured the approval of Last Train Home as the first independent Chinese documentary of-its-kind to be granted a nation-wide theatrical release license. He has 15 years of experience as a director, producer and commissioning editor at China Central Television with a repertoire of over 200 television documentaries.
2009-Last Train Home --- Co-producer / Executive Producer
2011-China Heavy Weight --- Co-producer
2012-Fallen City --- Director / Producer
