Gu Changwei

Fate Express

A loser deep in debt tries to use his girlfriend to seduce a rich boss for money.

Nice to Meet You

Love stories of students in a re-preparing school for college entrance exams.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

An account of the many tribulations that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his subversive art and political activism, endured between 2008 and 2011, from his rise to world fame via the Internet to his highly publicized arrest due to his frequent and daring confrontations with the Chinese authorities.

Together

Zhao Liang’s film portrays AIDS sufferers of both genders; they are all people with very different biographies. As if it wasn’t bad enough being infected by HIV, their suffering is compounded by the fact that in the People’s Republic of China the disease is hushed up and people living with AIDS are ostracised. In China, the public at large knows very little about the disease and most people associate the virus with promiscuity. This fear of discrimination forces most patients to hide the fact that they are positive. The AIDS sufferers in Zhao Liang’s film were willing to share their experiences with him. The filmmaker was able to make contact with them via internet support groups; he also visited children with Aids at a ‘red ribbon’ school; but above all, he talked to AIDS sufferers during the making of Gu Changwei’s film. It is their presence which lends Changwei’s film its particular authenticity.

Crazy English

A documentary about Li Yang, who tries to teach large numbers of Chinese to speak English, using unusual methods. He holds motivational rallies, where he gets the crowd to shout out English phrases, in order to instill confidence, and tells them not to be afraid of losing face. His goal is to increase Chinese trade, and export Chinese culture, to the main world markets: North America, Japan, and Europe. After the rally, they can continue their English lessons using his taped courses.

King of the Children

An unschooled young man, one of the countless victims of Mao's Cultural Revolution, is laboring in the countryside when he is assigned to teach in a nearby school. Gradually, he abandons the Maoist textbook and encourages the barely literate kids to write about their own lives and feelings.