Documentary on migrant workers in Hangzhou wins top award
2018-10-24
In northeastern Hangzhou's outskirts area nestles a block which is titled as 24th Street. With the boom in real estate industry, the block has brought together a number of migrant workers since 2010.
Pan Zhiqi, a teacher of Communication University of Zhejiang, spent seven years following Lao Su, a migrant worker, and his girlfriend, and turned their story into a documentary called 24th Street.
During the recently concluded 2nd West Lake International Documentary Festival, an annual event to honor excellent documentaries, 24th Street took home the Best Feature-Length Documentary award.
The festival, which ran from Oct 18 to 20, was jointly held by Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of Zhejiang province and the Hangzhou-based China Academy of Art.
French critic and scholar Jean-Michel Frodon and Chinese documentary director Ying Qiming co-presided the jury panel, which included filmmaker Lyu Yue, British director Richard Dale, Canadian critic Cameron Bailey, Hong Kong film editor Mary Stephen, Chinese documentary researcher He Suliu and director Du Haibin.
According to the jury, Pan's 24th Street depicts the adventures of ordinary people set against the backdrop in a country which is undergoing unprecedented changes.
Meanwhile, Fan Jian's A Second Child, about two families who suffer and survive the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, won the Most Potential Development Plan award.
Winners also included A Solitary Human Voice (D20 Best Short Documentary), Ten Years: Forget Me Not (D20 Best Documentary Series), Spanish director Elías León de Siminiani's The Asunta's Trial (Special Mention) and Four Springs (Special Jury Award).
The award-winning documentaries were selected from more than 450 entries from the world.