In Public (film)

Infobox Chinese Film
name = In Public


image_size =
caption =
director = Jia Zhangke
producer = Cha Seoung-Jae
writer = Jia Zhangke
starring =
music =
cinematography = Yu Lik-wai
Jia Zhangke
editing = Jia Zhangke
distributor =
released = Jeonju:
28 April 2001
runtime = 30 min.
language = Mandarin
budget =
amg_id = 1:430813
imdb_id = 0282602
jianti = 公共场所
fanti = 公共場所
pinyin = Gōng gōng cháng sǔo

"In Public" (zh-stpl|s=公共场所|t=公共場所|p=Gōng gōng cháng sǔo|l=Public space) is a short documentary film directed by sixth generation filmmaker Jia Zhangke. "In Public" was filmed digitally for the 2001 Jeonju International Film Festival.

In many ways, the film was a test-run for the feature length fiction film, "Unknown Pleasures". Indeed, both films are shot in digital film (a medium Jia would return to in "Still Life" (2006) and "24 City" (2008)), both are set in the city of Datong, and indeed both films even share the same shooting locations. As usual, Jia's regular collaborator Yu Lik-wai served as the film's director of photography.

The film also screened at the 2002 Marseilles Documentary Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. [cite web|url=http://www.fidmarseille.org/pdf/palm2002.pdf|title=Awards list 2002|publisher = Marseille Festival of Documentary Film|accessdate=2008-09-09]

Background

"In Public" was made and submitted by Jia as part of a program at the 2001 Jeonju International Film Festival, where three directors were asked to produce a short film in digital video. The other two directors who produced entries that year were Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang, and British director John Akomfrah. Setting up his camera in a train station in Datong, Jia would eventually cobble together a film consisting of thirty shots over forty-five days.cite web|url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/02/20/tsai_digital.html|title=Cutting Edge and Missed Encounters: Digital Shorts by Three Filmmakers|publisher="Senses of Cinema" | author=Reynaud, Bérénice| date=May 2002 |accessdate=2008-09-08]

Lacking in any formal plot, the film instead is content to capture seemingly mundane moments, customers asking for the train schedule, shots inside public buses, etc. The result, according to Chinese film scholar Berenice Reynaud, is a film that captures the "ennui, backwardness, and dreary atmosphere of a small town, and the impatience, hidden desires and private concerns of its inhabitants." For Jia, the film was a chance to focus on the public spaces in a modern provincial city of China: the train stations, discos, and karaokes of Datong. [cite web|url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/15/zhangke_interview.html|title=Cinema with an Accent, Interview with Jia Zhangke|publisher="Senses of Cinema"| date= June 2001 |author=Teo, Stephen| accessdate=2008-09-09]

Relationship to "Unknown Pleasures"

While filming "In Public", Jia became interested in not only the desolate-looking buildings that had originally attracted him to the city, but to the people who inhabited them. Moreover, Jia came to realize that filming with digital video would allow him unprecedented flexibility and movement, inspiring him to begin production of "Unknown Pleasures".cite web|url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/jia.html|title=Jia Zhangke|author=Lee, Kevin|publisher="Senses of Cinema"|date = February 2003| accessdate=2008-09-07] As Jia stated at a news conference following the release of "Unknown Pleasures": "At first it was the bleak and lonely buildings that attracted me. When I saw the streets filled with lonely, directionless people, I became interested in them." [cite web|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/archives/2002/05/26/0000137751|title= Director aims lens at China's new generation|publisher= "Taipei Times" |author= Yu Sen-Lun| date=2002-05-26| accessdate=2008-09-07]

One critic, however, sees the film as more of a positive depiction of humanity than seen in "Unknown Pleasures", noting that the film's final scene of people dancing in a dilapidated community center (the same center that opens the later film) elicits a sense of "people persevering despite the impoverishment of their existence." "Unknown Pleasures", in contrast, is "incendiary bleakness and outrage."

Stylistically, "In Public" fits well into the Jia oeuvre. It situates itself between Jia's "Platform" and "Unknown Pleasures", with the long takes of the former and the same desolate locations of the latter.

See also

* Digital video
* "Unknown Pleasures"
* Datong, Shanxi, People's Republic of China

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0282602|title=In Public
* [http://www.dianying.com/en/title/ggc2001 "In Public"] at the Chinese Movie Database