Huang Ji

The Foolish Bird

Lynn lives with her grandparents in Meicheng, a small Hunanese city unsettled by an ongoing rape-murder investigation. With little structure to regulate her life outside of school, where she is bullied, Lynn begins smuggling and reselling confiscated mobile phones with her friend, which leads to encounters with the city’s seedier inhabitants.

Beijing Ants

Ryuji Otsuka and Huang Ji are the ‘main characters' in this very personal homemade documentary that's funny, angry, scary and stirring all at once. He's the Japanese director of the film; she's his wife and a prizewinning filmmaker in her own right. For independent artists and filmmakers, finding an affordable place to live with their young daughter is a never-ending struggle. A side effect of China's astonishing prosperity is sky-high property prices – about $10,000 per square metre in Beijing. The landlords, movers and neighbours they encounter seem bent on driving them nuts. But never underestimate the resilience, determination and lung power of enraged, protective young Chinese parents. Otsuka's sometimes concealed camera reveals intimately how life feels, from ground level, in urban China today.