Youth (Spring)

One of the greatest filmmakers of the era, the sharp Chinese documentary filmmaker, Wang Bing, astutely depicts the everyday tasks of young textile workers in a city on the mainland of Shanghai, capturing the terrifying unseen realities of the unusual local economy of their vast country. Filmed during a period of five years (before the pandemic), the film condenses 2.600 hours of observational footage into an immersive three-and-a-half-hour experience. Abolishing the distance between the audience and the protagonists, the camera aligns us with the rhythm of a cruel and relentless production line, transporting us to the beating heart of the globalized market. The outcome is a living mosaic of a society comprised of internal migrants – boys and girls learning to share everything as they work 15 hours a day, hastily stitching together a preconceived vision of their future.

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Direction: Wang Bing

Cinematography: Yoshitaka Maeda, Shan Xiaohui, Song Yang, Liu Xianhui, Ding Bihan, Wang Bing

Editing: Dominique Auvray, Xu Bingyuan, Liyo Gong

Sound: Ranko Paukovic

Production: House on Fire, Gladys Glover, CS Production

Producers: Sonia Buchman, Mao Hui, Nicolas R. de la Mothe, Vincent Wang

Co-production: Arte France Cinéma, Les Films Fauves, Volya Films, Eastern Lion Pictures and Culture Media Co. Ltd, Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation, Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains

Co-producers: Gilles Chanial, Denis Vaslin, Fleur Knopperts, Jia Wang, Cui Qiao

Executive producer: Wang Yang

Format: DCP

Color: Color

Production Country: France, Luxembourg, The Netherlands

Production Year: 2023

Duration: 212'

Contact: Pyramide International

Awards/Distinctions: Best Documentary Feature – Taipei Golden Horse FF 2023

Wang Bing

Filmography

2003 West of the Tracks
2007 Fengming, a Chinese Memoir
2010 The Ditch (fiction)
2012 Three Sisters
2013 ’Til Madness Do Us Part
2016 Ta’ang
2016 Bitter Money
2017 Mrs Fang
2018 Dead Souls
2023 Youth (Spring)
2023 Man in Black