How Yukong Moved the Mountains

From 1972 until 1974, Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan, along with a Chinese film crew, documented the last days of the Cultural Revolution, marking the end of an era. The vast amount of footage they shot was edited into twelve films of varying lengths. Focusing on ordinary people spread over a wide geographic area-many of whom were living and working in collectives-the filmmakers recorded a unique moment in history, and also captured some of the more enduring aspects of Chinese culture.

Synopsis by film:

ABOUT PETROLEUM (81 minutes) A survey of the oil fields at Taking, crucial in the development of China’s self-sufficiency in terms of energy resources, with emphasis on the community of workers, men and women, that has sprung up about the project.

THE PHARMACY (74 minutes) An experimental Shanghai pharmacy and the efforts of its staff to reach out into its community with a higher level of service and constantly to evaluate their role and performance.

A WOMAN, A FAMILY (101 minutes) The working and family life of Kao Chou Lan, welder and union official. A film on her everyday life, the locomotive factory where she works and her views on marriage, love, education, and women’s liberation.

THE GENERATOR FACTORY (120 minutes) A factory employing 8000 workers near Shanghai. A criticism movement directed against the administration. The concept of a factory as a social and political institution as well as an economic one. The factory as an open place, not walled in, where families of workers are part of a living and working community.

THE FISHING VILLAGE (95 minutes) The village of Da Yu Dao, where a collective of young women have become sailors and fishers. Everyday life in the village and the application there of the Cultural Revolution.

A BARRACKS (54 minutes) A view of army life where officers eat with the men, soldiers help peasants with agriculture, soldiers’ wives and officers work alongside the soldiers in neighboring factories, and the military helps the civilian community in road upkeep, cultural activity, and militia training.

STORY OF THE BALL (11 minutes) A playground confrontation between teacher and student which reveals the working of the Cultural Revolution in microcosm.

PROFESSOR TSIEN (12 minutes) A university teacher who had been the favorite target of the Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution tells his story.

A PERFORMANCE AT PEKING OPERA (30 minutes) The training of opera performers in acrobatics and dance and a performance of a new work.

TRAINING AT THE PEKING CIRCUS (14 minutes) More training of performers and another performance, of acrobatics this time.

CRAFTSMEN (13 minutes) The transmission of traditional arts from the old generation to the young.

IMPRESSIONS OF A CITY (55 minutes) Shanghai.

DVDs content:

DVD 1
Le Village de pêcheurs 103’
Une caserne 57’
Entrainement au cirque de Pékin 20’

DVD 2
L’Usine de générateurs 129’
Une histoire de ballon 21’
Les Artisans    17’

DVD 3
Autour du pétrole 87’
Impression d’une ville 60’
Professeur Tsien 14’
Répétition à l’opéra de Pékin 31’

DVD4
La pharmacie 81’
Une femme, une famille 108’

DVD5
Les Kazaks 48’
Les Ouïgours 32’