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Wedding reception tent creation by Kevin Lee, florist and wedding planner to the stars at a private residence in Beverly Hills.
Book cover for a pulp novel published April 2010. Similar to The Shadow, The Spider and The Phantom.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
Umbrella by Du Haibin
China, 2008, 93 minutes, digital projections
presented with
the MOCA Chinese Cinema Club
and the China Institute Sinomathèque Film Series
The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.
Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.
Filmed in a purely observational style, with no narration or commentary, UMBRELLA shows the workaday life of young employees in a factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, where they engage in monotonous, endlessly and rapidly repeated routines to manufacture umbrellas, for which they are paid a meager piece rate. At a massive shopping mall, the “World’s Largest Small Commodity Market,” in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, those multicolored, multipatterned umbrellas are sold at much higher prices by wholesale merchants, who are among China’s nouveaux riche.
The film also shows throngs of young people filling out applications at a job fair in Shanghai or undergoing physical drills and ideological regimentation at a provincial garrison of the People’s Liberation Army. Finally, on a farm in Luoyang, Henan Province, we watch a group of elderly farmers struggle to salvage a premature harvest of drought-impacted wheat.
UMBRELLA makes sadly apparent the old adage about “the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer,” with China’s peasant farmers, who are struggling to survive amidst the combined forces of globalization and the new Chinese economy, bearing the brunt of the country’s growing pains.
“Fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.”—Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
“In creating a vast societal portrait through his focus on umbrellas, Du pulls off the rare feat of capturing the ephemeral.”—Jennique Mason, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Du Haibin was born in Baoji City in Shanxi Province in China. He studied painting from childhood. In 1993 he studied Painting and Photography at the Beijing Central Academy of Arts. In 1996 he entered Beijing Film Academy in the Photography department. In 1998 he started documentary filmmaking and creative photography work. Du Haibin has made numerous feature documentaries and two fiction films.
(l-r) Duncan Clark, Steven Goh, Kevin Lee and Kitty Lun sit on the podium during the DLD Conference at the HVB Forum on January 21, 2013 in Munich, Germany. DLD Conference 2013, Patterns that Connect, Munich, January, 20-22 – Free Press Photo © Hubert Burda Media / picture alliance / Tobias Hase
"The Birds Sing a Pretty Song" by Kevin Lee (sukhosstash.blogspot.com). Fluorescent Acrylic on Illustration Board. $100.
Part of Damn Fine Coffee: An Artistic Tribute to Twin Peaks at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, California. See - www.meltcomics.com/blog/2013/05/26/damn-fine-coffee-an-ar...
The last time I hung out with Jenny was at Vaughns on the night that Kevin proposed to Kris. So we have a strange bond :)
Kevin Lee, Duncan Clark (BDA China), Gabriele Oettingen (NYU), Anton Gollwitzer
DLD PARTY im CLUB HEART, München am 21.01.2013 / DLD Conference 2013, Patterns that Connect, Munich, January, 20-22 – Free Press Photo © Hubert Burda Media / S. Brauer / G. Nietschke
"The Birds Sing a Pretty Song" by Kevin Lee (sukhosstash.blogspot.com). Fluorescent Acrylic on Illustration Board. $100.
Part of Damn Fine Coffee: An Artistic Tribute to Twin Peaks at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, California. See - www.meltcomics.com/blog/2013/05/26/damn-fine-coffee-an-ar...
Shirley Powell (The Weather Company) und Kevin Lee / Chairmen`s Dinner im Jüdischen Gemeindezentrum in München am 20.01.2013 / DLD Conference 2013, Patterns that Connect, Munich, January, 20-22 – Free Press Photo © Hubert Burda Media / S. Brauer
Kevin Lee with Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network doing his pre-race broadcast at Kansas Speedway