Cover News Reporter Li Yuxin
Jiang Nengjie (right) filming "Children of the Village"
Low, old mud-brick houses, winding country roads, and paddy fields rippling in the breeze...... When you think of the countryside, what comes to mind?
This is a vast and rough land, a field and countryside full of earthy smell, and it is also the birthplace of documentary filmmaker Jiang Nengjie. In this land, there were whispered sobs from left-behind children, the coughing of pneumoconiosis patients, and the helpless sighs of migrant farmers...... And these voices were recorded in the lens by Jiang Nengjie one by one, and presented on large or small screens.
Since picking up the camera in 2008, Jiang Nengjie has been walking between the countryside and the city for several years, focusing his lens on the disadvantaged and marginalized. So, in the grassy and gravel countryside, and in the narration of the photographed, he spent his youth.
On the eve of the May Fourth Youth Day, the cover news reporter dialed Jiang Nengjie's phone, when he was finishing a shooting and took time out of his busy schedule to be interviewed. When he came out of his phone with a slightly Hunan accent, he talked about the separation from his parents in his childhood, the tears of the left-behind children he saw during filming, the inseparable local feelings, and the financial pressures he always had to face when creating.
Childhood, hometown
"What do you want to do when you grow up?"
"Like Mom and Dad, go to work. ”
This is a pair of clear and ignorant eyes, with endless curiosity about the outside world, together with a young and young face, appearing in Jiang Nengjie's lens. This is the picture in the documentary "Children of the Village", which records the story of three left-behind children's families who once lived in the depths of the mountains of Hunan, and it is also the childhood that Jiang Nengjie experienced.
In the 80s of the last century, Jiang Nengjie was born in a village in Xinning, Hunan. The childhood I remember is the eagerness to let the cattle go on the way to herd the cattle, the time when I used reading books to avoid doing farm work, the interest in reading in the scarce book resources, and the years when I was constantly separated from my parents.
When he was 10 years old, Jiang Nengjie's mother went out to work and became one of the first wave of migrant workers in China. At the age of 15, his father also went to work in other places. At that time, he didn't think there was anything special about this kind of life, and in the years when his parents were not around, he lived with the old man and younger brother at home. Later, when he was admitted to university and walked out of the mountains, he saw an article about left-behind children in a magazine in the school's reading room, and realized that he was the first generation of "left-behind children" at that time. At the same time, he learned that there were so many children in his hometown whose parents were away from home all year round.
"Why I chose to shoot my hometown and the theme of left-behind children is related to my background and experience. Jiang Nengjie said. In 2009, after graduating from university, Jiang Nengjie picked up a camera, returned to his hometown of Guang'an Village, Xinning, walked into the local village school, and began to record the daily life of a temporary school and 22 students, 17 of whom were left-behind children. Jiang Nengjie's first documentary "Road" was born. After that, he followed left-behind children for more than ten years, and created a trilogy of public welfare documentaries focusing on left-behind children - "Road", "Children in the Village" and "Plus One".
Jiang Nengjie (left) filming "Children of the Village"
Contemporary writer Fu Xiuying once said that a writer may spend his whole life writing about his childhood. Most of Jiang Nengjie's works are based on the countryside where he grew up, with clear and strong childhood imprints and distinct land attributes.
In 2019, Jiang Nengjie's documentary "Miners, Grooms, Pneumoconiosis" set off a lot of discussion on the Internet, which recorded the story of a group of low-level miners in a private "mine" in Xinning, Hunan. In the film, the villagers who survive in the mines, the horsemen who transport ore and explosives, and the miners who contract pneumoconiosis in poor conditions...... These are all microcosms intertwined in Jiang Nengjie's childhood memories. Because when he was 11 years old, his father, second uncle, and third uncle, who were miners, all suffered from pneumoconiosis one after another. Many years later, the bits and pieces experienced by his relatives became the stories told in Jiang Nengjie's lens.
"I'm a person with a strong sense of locality. Speaking of his hometown, which is always unavoidable in his works, Jiang Nengjie said that he was born in the countryside, and his parents were also migrant workers, and his childhood and adolescence in his hometown shaped his life. "Because I often live at the bottom and have a lot of contact with people at the bottom, I have a natural affinity for them. My hometown has also become the birthplace of my career, and it is also the place where I first created. ”
Record, see
In September 2021, the movie "Short Woman" directed by Jiang Nengjie landed in theaters and was officially released.
This is Jiang Nengjie's first attempt at the creation of feature films, and it is also his first work to get the "Dragon Mark". At this time, it is the twelfth year that he has paid attention to the theme of left-behind children. And the starring role of "Short Woman" is the protagonist of Jiang Nengjie's previous documentary, a left-behind child Jiang Yunjie from Hunan.
Jiang Yunjie, who opened her eyes wide and said that she wanted to go out to work when she grew up, was only 6 years old when she first appeared in Jiang Nengjie's footage, and was the subject of Jiang Nengjie's documentary debut "Road" created in 2009. Then, in the story told in "Children of the Village", you can also see the figure of this girl who stayed in the countryside and depended on the elderly.
Stills from the documentary "Children of the Village".
From the documentary "Road" to "Children in the Village" to the movie "Short Woman", Jiang Nengjie has been rooted in the soil of his hometown for more than ten years, and has continued to pay attention to the left-behind children in the changing environment of rural areas in different ways. As a result, Jiang Nengjie, as the first generation of left-behind children in China, recorded the stories of the second and third generations of left-behind children with his camera.
Jiang Nengjie (first from left) filming the movie "Short Woman"
"If I don't go to school, if I don't go out of the mountains, if I don't pick up the machine, if I don't jump out to observe, I am also accustomed to the phenomenon of 'left-behind children'. Jiang Nengjie said that when he went to school in a big city, he looked back at his hometown, and he began to wonder that he saw the families of migrant workers and the left-behind children in his hometown lack attention and understanding. So, he picked up the camera and created his first work, "The Road".
In 2012, Jiang Nengjie ended his two-year life in Beipiao, resigned from Guangguang Media, returned to his hometown Guang'an Village, and began to record the people living on this land. Then, in 2014, Jiang Nengjie's documentary "Children of the Village", which had been prepared for nearly 6 years, finally came out; in 2019, "Miners, Grooms, Pneumoconiosis", which took 10 years to complete, became popular on the Internet; in 2020, the public welfare documentary "Everything Will Be Going to Be" was broadcast, which truly and objectively recorded the story of a group of "mentally handicapped people", and in the early winter of 2023, "Sister Plus One", which focuses on the growth of rural children, was released......
Stills from the documentary "Children of the Village".
"They need to be seen. In the story told by Jiang Nengjie, what needs to be seen is not only the left-behind children who weep in the face of their parents' departure, but also the farmers and miners who suffer from pneumoconiosis due to illegal mining, and the mentally handicapped who "can't control their daily lives...... "I care about this society, and I hope that every 'marginal' group, or vulnerable group, can live with dignity." I hope that works that focus on social reality can be seen by more people, so that they can have a better voice, otherwise this kind of film will lose a lot of meaning. ”
In the mud of the countryside, in the tossing and turning of the city, and in the whispers of the photographed, Jiang Nengjie spent his youth, which was more than ten years in a flash.
"I often use documentaries to present issues, ask questions, and try to speak out, because a lot of people have a hard time speaking out, but they need attention. Jiang Nengjie said that his original intention of shooting the documentary was also to enhance the understanding between people and arouse empathy between people. "I want to remove some prejudice and be more kind. ”
Rural, urban
When the movie "Short Woman" was released, it had been filmed for three years, and this feature film, which started filming in 2015, was released for 12 days and the box office struggled to exceed 200,000.
For documentary filmmakers who are not working for the public, the creative funding dilemma seems to be a long-term one. And "making money to raise films" and "borrowing money to make films" seem to be the norm of Jiang Nengjie's early creations. In 2012, when Jiang Nengjie returned to the countryside and chose to shoot documentaries full-time, he had to undertake commercial film shooting from time to time to make ends meet.
In order to shoot the film "Short Woman", Jiang Nengjie couldn't find an investment, so he borrowed money to shoot it himself, and spent a down payment on the plan to buy a house in Changsha. It was once rumored that Jiang Nengjie sold his house and car in order to make a film, but he laughed and called it a "rumor". "I haven't bought a house or a car, so how can I sell it. It's just that when I was filming "Short Woman", I did have a plan to buy a house in Changsha, and I was already married and had children at that time, and the house price was not high. However, there was a lack of money for filming, so he embezzled the down payment he had saved. ”
Later, the plan to buy a house that was put on hold has not been realized.
Jiang Nengjie said that around 2014, he also fell into a state of helplessness. At that time, he had been engaged in documentary creation for five or six years, and the filming made him physically and mentally exhausted, and he kept asking himself, what is the meaning of filming these people and things, and what can he change? Fortunately, the reason why Jiang Nengjie persevered, in addition to "feelings" and "hometown", and the broadcast of the documentary "Children of the Village", made him gain countless praises and recognition. This documentary, which is "rough" in Jiang Nengjie's opinion, has been screened in many cities and universities, and according to incomplete statistics, more than 600 screenings have been performed.
"Because of this film, I began to understand that the value of a film is not how beautiful its images are, how much money it costs, how high-end equipment it uses, and that the real power will not be diminished because of its roughness. With a reason to insist, Jiang Nengjie has successively made a number of works that focus on public welfare and record the truth. Although the filming process was difficult due to financial constraints, his heart was steadfast.
"I'm still trying to make money, but my family's daily expenses are not very large, because I don't have any material desires, and my family understands and supports me. At the same time, in the process of shooting, Jiang Nengjie also found that the voice of his works to the society is slowly having an impact.
It's not just documentaries. In 2016, the Rural Public Welfare Library founded by Jiang Nengjie was completed in his hometown of Xinning, Hunan, and he named it Cotton Sand Book House. Cotton sand is the name of Jiang Neng's outstanding birthplace and the location of the first library. Today, there are 5 cotton sand book houses, scattered in different villages, and all the operating expenses and books of the library are donated from all walks of life.
"I remember when I was a child, I didn't have to do farm work as long as I read books. However, there are few books in rural areas, and reading resources are scarce, so textbooks in the upper grades can be read as extracurricular books. It was in this situation that I developed my interest in reading and my 'literary dream', which was also the source of my later documentary filmmaking. ”
Today, Jiang Nengjie and his family live in Guangzhou. Inhabiting the countryside and the city, he set his sights on the rural people who live in the city. Some of the left-behind children he photographed when he was young have come to the city and become migrant workers like their parents, floating population, and migrant children.
"I hope that both documentaries and these book houses can be part of the memories of children when they grow up, and I hope that they can reach more people. Jiang Nengjie said that from the moment he picked up the camera, some things have never changed, and he uses his works to pay attention to the times, individuals, and people, and he is also trying to speak "human words".
This article is based on the interviewee
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