Once Upon a Time Proletarian

"Much like the written ideograms in Chinese languages, the twelve chapters forming Guo Xiaolu's latest documentary, Once Upon a Time Proletarian: 12 Tales of a Country, transcend conventional narrative and float into a poetic world of images that succeed in rendering a sharp portrait of post-Maoist China. These twelve lyrical and politically insightful visual essays unveil the social landscape of China today. While shooting She, a Chinese –her fiction film also screening in the Festival – Guo felt the urge to document the lives of peasants and onlookers surrounding the production, to probe their dreams and vibrant authenticity without the filter of an invented story. Once Upon a Time Proletarian is a gallery of these honest portraits...