"Open your eyes on each other.
text written before the screening "
AI Xiaoming
[Mrs AI has been awarded the Simone de Beauvoir, 2010. A meeting was held January 12, 2010 at the University of Paris Diderot. Unable be present on site, Ms. Al sent this text]
I do not know what movie was screened. Since 2004, I worked with Hu Jie independent producer and together we have achieved more than a dozen documentary films that focus on contemporary Chinese society, the situation of women and human rights movements. But at the time of this writing, I thought of something else.
In 2005, when I was in search of soundtrack of the film documentary " Garden's Paradise" (Tiantang Huayuan), I read the text of a musician, Yang Dian guzhen player. This text, which made me a strong impression, is entitled "Chronicle of a zither bloody." According to Yang Dian, in ancient China, in imperial times, the greatest musicians opposed to the use of violence by the sovereign, they oppose with all their might to become martyrs. The soul of the instrument, is the spirit of these heroic musicians who have been fearless and daring the paths of liberty.
In this documentary, "Garden of Paradise", a mother seeks the painful truth about his daughter who was raped to death. Faced with the battered body of his daughter, his heart is destroyed, the pain she feels is inhumane. To preserve the body, she prepared herself formalin solution. When the film ends, the suspects were acquitted, but must pay the sum of 59 399.5 yuan in compensation. A decision eminently contradictory!
It the same year that occurs the Sun Zhigang case that led to the change of Chinese law [1] . In the case of Huang Jing [which is the subject of the documentary. NDT], the victim is a woman. Many, many feminists have become involved in the campaign associated with this case. But today, if you ask the Chinese students, most are unaware of the courageous campaign was conducted, and also ultimately failed.
One explanation is that we fought for social equality by means of a movement of citizens. We did not have access to legal knowledge.
A second explanation is that the violation of women's rights are numerous and sometimes much more serious, or at a larger scale than the case of Huang Jing. Making it difficult to focus people's attention on one case.
What encouraged me to choose the path of documentary is this case of violence against women. The idea that I always remember is that : open our eyes each on the other.
We need to see.
See how the life of a human being can be outraged.
See that we may die unburied because justice is not equal for all and that the neglect of violence against women.
In this part of the documentary, I used the guqin piece entitled "Huji shiba pai" [part of the classical repertoire in 18 steps. NDT] to emphasize the pain of a mother who lost her daughter. But this is one aspect. The soul of this documentary is the struggle for social justice caused by pain. The blood and the zither, documentary and art maintain relations inseparable.
In September 2005, I filmed "The village of Taishi (Taishicun), a work devoted to elections in a village in Guangdong province. This time, again, I did not know that the film would gradually change the course of my life. After its completion, I was forbidden to go abroad, then we forbade me to go to my students. Several of the most famous Chinese universities did not allow me to give lectures. It was banned in some independent film festivals to plan my work.
From all this, I'm not complaining. Because in China, many writers and filmmakers have had an early spell equivalent. For my part, I was really lucky because before making documentary films for over twenty years I was a university professor. I had many opportunities for exchanges, training university research. And these experiences gave me the energy to get into the documentary field.
I would also say that I am particularly grateful to life for allowing me to become a documentary filmmaker. It taught me to see, share, understand, in our society, which is tough, women can withstand pain that it's hard to imagine.
In the film "Chronicle of the Central Plains" (Zhonggyuan jishi), women Henan, at that time because of the development at this time of so-called "economy of blood," gave their blood and were infected with HIV.
In "The home care and love" (Guan Zhijia), women and children are infected through a transfusion at the hospital at birth.
In the movie "Our little children" (Women of wawa), because [during the earthquake in Sichuan] their children were buried under the rubble of schools built in cardboard. At the height of their despair, parents lose the will to live . Myself, I would not have the strength to face all this. While I was editing the film, I could not stop bursting into tears.
However, filming, during assembly, I also saw many other realities. I have witnessed situations that encouraged me and got me excited: the emergence of passion and action to demand rights. A Chinese proverb says: the brink of death, there is the possibility of life. In many situations extreme, we see women equipped with vitality and creativity unprecedented. That these women are intellectuals such as Professor Gao Yaojie [2] , mere volunteers like those contained in "A citizen survey (Gongming diaocha [last documentary Mrs. AI]), or whether the mothers of missing children in our film made about the earthquake in Sichuan.
From my point of view, the struggle for human embodies the soul Chinese people today. Therein lies the hope of this society. The fight for the rights must be the cornerstone of contemporary Chinese art.
The cinema was invented in France a century ago. I believe that if Simone de Beauvoir had had a camera and made films, the story of the emancipation of women would have been different. We could meet us and we encourage each other. Today, the diffusion of technology makes it possible allows us to meet here.
I cordially thank the organizers of the screening today, I thank the audience, thank you, through my documentary, you will be interested in the history of the struggle Chinese women lead the conquest of their rights.
Translation Gilles GUIHEUX
Copyright AI Xiaoming
[1] Sun Zhigang, a young man of 27, graduated from the University of Wuhan , died on March 20, 2003 in a detention center ( 收容所 Shourongsuo). The case made headlines when the national press . Sun, who worked at Township , was arrested under that it does not concern him his residence permit (hukou). President Wen announced June 20, 2003 that the detention centers would be replaced by simple steps to help vagrants and beggars (NDT).
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