JuVi
2006-01-29, 11:10 PM
CONCRETE REVOLUTION
Monday February 6, 2006 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld
http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyemonday/images/concrete.jpg
Hailed as the city symbolizing the New China, Beijing is being demolished and reconstructed at a feverish pace. It is now the biggest and busiest building site on the planet. Millions of poor laborers from the rural provinces are being pulled into the city's construction sites, as Beijing transforms itself for the next Olympic Games. CBC NEWS: THE PASSIONATE EYE presents Concrete Revolution, a visually rich and imaginative documentary that examines the social cost of this change to ordinary people.
In Concrete Revolution, young Chinese writer and documentary filmmaker Xiaolu Guo parallels her own experience of coming to live in Beijing with those of the construction workers. Xiaolu dreams about moving into her new apartment, in a brand new building. The labourers toil to build the new Beijing by hand, under poor conditions. They are often not paid until the building project is completed. As shiny new buildings and icons of western civilization take the foreground, the hardships of those constructing the new image are pushed into the background.
Concrete Revolution is a powerful commentary on the social cost of massive modernization, and the Chinese Government's role in the disappearance of ancient traditions as it strives to present a modern face to the rest of the world. Even in the emperors' Forbidden City, there's now a Starbucks coffee shop.
Concrete Revolution was directed and produced by Xiaolu Guo.
Monday February 6, 2006 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld
http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyemonday/images/concrete.jpg
Hailed as the city symbolizing the New China, Beijing is being demolished and reconstructed at a feverish pace. It is now the biggest and busiest building site on the planet. Millions of poor laborers from the rural provinces are being pulled into the city's construction sites, as Beijing transforms itself for the next Olympic Games. CBC NEWS: THE PASSIONATE EYE presents Concrete Revolution, a visually rich and imaginative documentary that examines the social cost of this change to ordinary people.
In Concrete Revolution, young Chinese writer and documentary filmmaker Xiaolu Guo parallels her own experience of coming to live in Beijing with those of the construction workers. Xiaolu dreams about moving into her new apartment, in a brand new building. The labourers toil to build the new Beijing by hand, under poor conditions. They are often not paid until the building project is completed. As shiny new buildings and icons of western civilization take the foreground, the hardships of those constructing the new image are pushed into the background.
Concrete Revolution is a powerful commentary on the social cost of massive modernization, and the Chinese Government's role in the disappearance of ancient traditions as it strives to present a modern face to the rest of the world. Even in the emperors' Forbidden City, there's now a Starbucks coffee shop.
Concrete Revolution was directed and produced by Xiaolu Guo.