Zhang Mengqi
Birth : 1987-01-01, Hubei, China
History
Zhang Mengqi was born in 1987. Lives in Beijing and Diaoyutai Village(Hubei) She graduated from the Dance Academy of Minzu University of China in 2008. Since 2009, she has been a resident filmmaker and choreographer at Caochangdi Workstation in Beijing. In 2010 she participated in The Folk Memory Project.
Since 2010, Mengqi has made nine feature-length documentaries filmed in her father’s village in Hebei Province, known as her ‘self-portrait series’, a decade-long creation between exploring history and illuminating reality, and a film a year, the formation of a unique group of works.Her films have been selected by Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Cinéma du Réel, Visions du Réel, RIDM etc.
Her first film ‘Self-Portrait with Three Women’ was selected as ‘Ten Best Documentary Films’ in the 8th China Independent Film Festival. Her latest film “Self-Portrait: Sphinx in 47 KM” Won the “White Goose Award” in DMZ International Documentary Film Festival.
Her choreographic work was performed in Foundation CULTURESCAPES(Switzerland), Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (France), ImPuls Tanz (Vienna), Eurokaz (Croatia), etc. As a founding member of The Folk Memory Project, Mengqi also participated in the creation of collective theater works, Memory: Hunger (2010), Memory: Monument (2012), Reading Hunger (2016), Reading Father(2019).
Director
As coronavirus begins to sweep the globe, Zhang returns to her father’s village with her camera, seeking to understand where the extraordinary phenomenon might sit in the grand palimpsest of China’s history. As with all of Zhang’s work, this is a committed, reflective, formally assured non-fiction film, grounded in collaboration and blessed with an uncanny sense of unhurried time.
Director
When the pandemic broke out, the filmmaker began to document the outside world from her window. A public space, Blue House, was finally realised but made empty for an indefinite time.
Self
Luo Luo’s intense fear of Covid-19 keeps her in the house during the pandemic. She listens to her father relate their family history, and spends time on Zoom with fellow Folk Memory Project members Wu Wenguang and Zhang Mengqi.
Director
The newest instalment in a series set in a small village in a mountainous region in China. In the winter marking ten years since the director began filming, she tries to get a new building constructed in the village. The girls, who had thus far been the subjects of her films, take up the camera themselves, and begin recording scenes of the village.
Self
Edited together from materials taken from Caochangdi performances and activities between 2012-2013 and Wu Wenguang's own body camera record, this film can be regarded as a kind of "story follow-up" version of "Because of Hunger". In short, it is a kind of "remembrance".
Director
The village in the mountains of China that the director has long made the subject of her camera. The traces of memories and landscapes that fade away before one’s eyes. An 85-year-old man is recounting the story of half of his life, while a young girl draws portraits of the village elderly.
Director
In the Chinese countryside, an old woman tells the story of her deceased son, while a little girl paints her dreams on the walls of the house. A personal and attentive perspective on the territory, which articulates the memory of a disappearing generation and the hopes of the one to come.
Director
Between 1959 and 1961, more than 35 million people starved to death because of Mao’s Great Leap Forward policies. To avoid censorship in China, this painful period is now euphemistically referred to as the “Three Years of Natural Disasters.” This courageous oral history, directed by Zhang Mengqi, tells the story from the point of view of her grandfather’s village, to which she returns every winter to interview survivors. Central is moving voice-overs from a grandmother who details harrowing pregnancies and lonely births during the Great Famine and her granddaughter, a migrant worker. In this agricultural village, the landscape is stark yet beautiful with plenty of room for contemplation. When a hand appears in front of the camera, Zhang transitions into a delightfully playful territory, incorporating a uniquely participatory experience that extends beyond the screen.
Director
This village is located 47 KM from Suizhou, Hubei Province. Her grandfather passed away, and what does the village mean to her without him? She started to search for stories about death in the village: some are of unnatural causes, some are bizarre, and some are results of hatred. In the daily life accompanied by so many deaths, how should she understand death?
Editor
The fifth title in Zhang Mengqi's Self-Portrait film series.
Cinematography
The fifth title in Zhang Mengqi's Self-Portrait film series.
Director
The fifth title in Zhang Mengqi's Self-Portrait film series.
Herself
The fifth title in Zhang Mengqi's Self-Portrait film series.
Director
This is the fourth film in my self-portrait series. I went back to the village named 47 km in 2013. My grandfather was critically ill, and I accompanied him like accompanied the death. The old people and their memories are like dead leaves. I got familiar with the children and we acted together to build a bookroom in village. Between the solitary old people and the naïve sunshine children, can I find my dream here?
Cinematography
The film is about the first two years in the Memory Project. All images was from my angle with my camera.
Cinematography
After Self-Portrait: At 47 Km, Zhang Mengqi pursues her contributions to the Folk Memory Project, relentlessly questioning the survivors of the 1959-61 famine in her village, “47 kilometres” (47 km from Suizhou, in Hebei Province).
Editor
After Self-Portrait: At 47 Km, Zhang Mengqi pursues her contributions to the Folk Memory Project, relentlessly questioning the survivors of the 1959-61 famine in her village, “47 kilometres” (47 km from Suizhou, in Hebei Province).
Director
After Self-Portrait: At 47 Km, Zhang Mengqi pursues her contributions to the Folk Memory Project, relentlessly questioning the survivors of the 1959-61 famine in her village, “47 kilometres” (47 km from Suizhou, in Hebei Province).
Director
The young filmmaker returns to her village to interview the elderly on the Chinese famine of 1958-60. But the villagers' replies direct her back to the memory of her own family.
Editor
The 23-year-old director, fresh out of university, lives at home with her mother and grandmother. She rebels against them but also tries to understand the generation gap between them. While she gets angry and questions their expectations of her as a woman (i.e., to marry and have children), she also gropes for the meaning of real love. Along with her mother and grandmother, the three women wring out their loves and hates with explosive strength. The director in her performance piece uses her own body to project the images of her mother, turning her lost loves into springboards, practically jumping out of the screen so she can shout with all her might.
Director of Photography
The 23-year-old director, fresh out of university, lives at home with her mother and grandmother. She rebels against them but also tries to understand the generation gap between them. While she gets angry and questions their expectations of her as a woman (i.e., to marry and have children), she also gropes for the meaning of real love. Along with her mother and grandmother, the three women wring out their loves and hates with explosive strength. The director in her performance piece uses her own body to project the images of her mother, turning her lost loves into springboards, practically jumping out of the screen so she can shout with all her might.
Director
The 23-year-old director, fresh out of university, lives at home with her mother and grandmother. She rebels against them but also tries to understand the generation gap between them. While she gets angry and questions their expectations of her as a woman (i.e., to marry and have children), she also gropes for the meaning of real love. Along with her mother and grandmother, the three women wring out their loves and hates with explosive strength. The director in her performance piece uses her own body to project the images of her mother, turning her lost loves into springboards, practically jumping out of the screen so she can shout with all her might.
