NYFF Dispatch 2: The Wang Binge
What seven hours of watching documentaries does to a MF.
Youth (Hard Times) and Youth (Homecoming) are the second and third parts of Wang Bing’s documentary trilogy about textile workers in Zhili, a town in Huzhou City. Although China is nominally a socialist country, the economy operates in a laissez-faire gray area. Workers come from all around China, enduring fifteen-hour workdays and low wages to make children’s clothing for the domestic market. This intranational migration is one of the few ways for people to move out of their hometowns, thanks to residence restrictions put in place during Mao’s era. The sweatshops are fly-by-night operations: if the boss suddenly takes off, there’s little recourse for the laborers except to sell the leftover sewing machines. It’s the worst of capitalism and socialism. Within this setting, Wang humanizes his subjects, both in the workplace and outside of it. The films are even joyous, at times, when we follow the laborers to their far-off hometowns.
Adding up the runtimes of the first part, Youth (Spring), as well as Hard Times and Homecoming, and you’re looking at nearly ten hours of observational documentary. (It’s still shorter than a day’s work in Zhili.) While all three films have a similar structure, Spring focuses on burgeoning romances and immerses us in the day to day lives in the textile factories. Hard Times centers on the conflicts that arise between labor and management, and Homecoming mostly spends time in the workers’ hometowns, where weddings and New Year’s celebrations bring levity to their lives.
I had always been intrigued by Wang Bing’s work, which studies the impacts of industrialization and last century’s political upheavals on the Chinese working class. His films are very long, with most ranging from three to nine hours. The imposing duration had long put me off from watching his films, but I wanted to see why some consider him to be one of our finest documentarians. I also wondered if the acclaim for Wang’s work is an effect of selection bias: the kind of person who’d watch such non-fiction epics are the same people who would like them.
Hard Times and Homecoming were screened back to back on Sunday night, which gave masochistic cinephiles like me the chance to take on the Wang Binge: including two Q&As with the director, that’s over seven hours in the theater, with a very brief break in between.
Before undergoing this challenge, I watched the first part, Spring, at home. The 3.5 hour movie was hard to get through, but it’s been really hard for me to stay focused when watching stuff at home. This is why I committed to seeing the next films in the theater. It’s the best place to give a long, leisurely paced film its best chance.
After ten hours of observing life in this industry town, I believe Wang has crafted an epic, sociological study that reveals every aspect of life within this segment of society. While a shorter edit would have made it far more digestible, experiencing such a duration is part of the point. If it’s something you think you’ll be into, you’ll probably be into it!
I kept a journal of my day to track my experience with the Wang Bing long binge. Edited excerpts are below. If you want a serious analysis of the film, please read Dan Schindel’s review in Hyperallergic.
3:10 PM
I have arrived at the Lincoln Center. Last night I had some friends over and drank a lot of cocktails. I slept for five hours. Miraculously, no hangover.
Stepping past the long queue for the mobile Criterion Closet, I go into Alice Tully Hall’s VIP lounge for a Film at Lincoln Center member mixer. Byron and Giselle are already there, and I start manically debriefing them on all the movies I’ve seen up to this point. (Nickel Boys is amazing. April… you’ll have to read my next dispatch.)
3:45 PM
After a couple glasses of wine, I figured that eating some of the tea sandwiches would be a good idea, since I won’t be able to really eat until well after midnight. I have a weakness for egg salad sandwiches and eat like seven of these little wedges.
4:25 PM
I head across the street to the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, where Youth (Hard Times) is being screened. My seat is in the very back row, a few seats in from the aisle. Time to get comfortable…
4:35 PM
Wang Bing introduces the film, giving some context on the film’s production.
4:40 PM
As the lights dim, a woman in the audience asks the person next to her how long the movie is. “Three and a half hours.” Sadly, I didn’t get a good look at her reaction.
6:00 PM
Getting interesting now. We’ve been witnessing conflicts between managers and workers, arguing over pay rates. One boss just dips and closes his shop, leaving his employees unpaid with no worker protections.
6:30 PM
Two people sitting next to me whisper to each other for a bit then walk out. They never return.
I have been intermittently dozing off.
6:45 PM
My first bathroom break. On my way to the toilet I can hear RaMell Ross discussing Nickel Boys with Barry Jenkins and it sounds interesting.
7:10 PM
I stopped falling asleep an hour ago. I think I am now locked in, baby!
7:15 PM
It got slow and I slept again.
7:30 PM
One of the workers is laying down in bed and he’s nonchalantly telling this horrifying story about how a few years ago, a tax collector kicked a pregnant woman, causing her to miscarry. A group of workers went to complain and their protest was violently suppressed. Things spun out from there, riots broke out, and this guy was thrown into prison, where he was brutally beaten. He says, “That place opened our eyes to the reality of society. Something’s wrong, right?”
(More info on the Zhili riots here.)
All this while he’s watching an action movie on his laptop.
This movie is not passing China’s censorship board.
7:45 PM
Another bathroom break. In the venue, staffers are setting up for Cinephile Game Night, essentially a trivia game where the winner is the person who has memorized IMDb the best.
7:50 PM
Perhaps Wang Bing has largely stayed out of the eye of the Chinese government because his films are so damn long. (That said, earlier this year Wang’s internet presence was largely scrubbed from the Chinese internet.)
8:20 PM
The movie has ended. I tallied how many times I fully dozed off: five micronaps. Can’t believe I have another three hours of this tonight.
The Q&A is moderated by K. Austin Collins, a member of the NYFF selection committee who also makes crosswords for The New Yorker. I hate his crosswords. They’re hard in a way that makes me feel dumb.
Asked about showing the workers express their political beliefs, Wang says he “can’t avoid politics that are in their daily lives. Omitting it would be propaganda [itself].”
8:40 PM
Audience questions begin and everyone asking a question is doing so in Mandarin, which is really cool.
8:45 PM
The Q&A is now over. On my way out of the venue, I pass by a table hawking products from The Travel Agency, a cannabis store with fancy branding. I cross the street to where the next film will be shown.
8:50 PM
Ran into Byron outside the Walter Reade. He had just gotten out of seeing Happyend and was about to head home. I’m here for another three hours.
8:55 PM
Now seated for the third film in the Youth trilogy, Homecoming. I’m in the row, at the bottom of the stadium section. It’s the best spot in the house because you can get in and out without climbing over everyone.
Munching on some apples for sustenance because there is literally no time to eat dinner.
9:05 PM
Festival curator Rachel Rosen introduces this screening. She asks how many people had just come out of the screening of Hard Times. About half the room raises their hands. We’re all freaks who showed up for the Wang Binge!
Wang introduces his film: “Initially I only had the budget for the [first two installments]. I didn’t have as much resources for the third part…. There was not enough manpower to capture what we wanted to do. Therefore, it is shorter.”
Shorter is a relative adjective.
9:10 PM
I realize that because I’ve been seeing all of these press screenings in the leadup to today, I’m well inoculated to sitting in a movie theater for eight hours a day. This isn’t as much of a stunt as I thought it would be.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading a piece that is really just “for the fans.” I attempted to experiment with the form of a movie review and not sure it was a success.
9:35 PM
On screen, a dozen people are sitting around a table eating hot pot. I wish I could join them right now.
9:40 PM
It sounds like I’m complaining but while these factory scenes are boring, they are not excruciating. You can just vibe with it for a bit.
9:50 PM
One of the subjects, Si Qu, is eating instant noodles and I want to be Si Qu right now.
We’re following her and her fiancée to Ludian District in Yunnan Province. Driving up snowy mountains and windy dirt roads. Looks dangerous!
10:20 PM
Some villagers are walking down the mountain path, and you can hear the cameraman panting, struggling to keep pace. We all laughed at this.
10:25 PM
If anyone was dozing off, all these firecrackers are changing that.
10:35 PM
The wind is howling through the mountains. Meanwhile my stomach is rumbling. Hard to say which is louder.
10:40 PM
Bathroom break.
10:50 PM
Is this the best part of the series, or is this Stockholm Syndrome kicking in? Perhaps it’s because we spend the most time outside of the factory. Obviously it’s more fun to watch people celebrating versus toiling in a sweatshop. But out of context, it would just be people enjoying themselves. We’ve built up to this because we see how much they are working every other time of the year. We’ve spent the past seven hours watching them struggle. This is their catharsis, as well as ours.
10:55 PM
But now we are back in Zhili and everyone has to look for a new job. Work is itinerant; there is no stability.
11 PM
I’m sleepy again.
11:10 PM
One of the guys is wearing a Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight tank top. [I don’t know why this was worth writing down.]
11:20 PM
Horny ass couple just humping each other in the workplace.
11:35 PM
I’m so tired.
11:40 PM
The movie has ended. The Q&A begins.
12 AM
I have now been in a movie theater for 7.5 hours today. Somehow, this is not the most time I’ve been inside the Walter Reade Theater during this festival.
12:10 AM
Asked about the likelihood of these films being released in China, given their subtle critiques of the government, Wang simply says that piracy is the best method for Chinese people to see his work.
12:20 AM
The Q&A is over and I’ve completed the Wang Binge! Decided between getting McDonald’s now or pizza on my block. Decide to get pizza later, and I hustle over to the train.
12:45 AM
I realize I got on the D train, and not the A… I have to make an out of station transfer between DeKalb and Hoyt-Schermerhorn. FML.
1:05 AM
I have gotten off the train and now headed to Champion’s Pizza, a slice shop that’s mercifully open until 4 AM. They only had a handful of square slices left, so I grabbed a square “Lasagna” slice and a beef patty.
1:15 AM
I am sitting down in my living room and eating that pizza and patty and I am delirious. In less than twelve hours, I’ll be seeing another movie. Cinema!