At 14:28 on May 12, 2008, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale destroyed the homes of people in and around Wenchuan, Sichuan, and claimed 70,000 lives. In order to fight the earthquake and provide disaster relief, thousands of officers and soldiers and fire medical personnel rushed to the disaster area, and there were also well-wishers who rushed to make some contributions to the people in the disaster area, and director Du Haibin and his team were one of them.
Different from the content released by news reports and self-media, the content of this documentary "1428" directed by director Du Haibin records the most real situation of the people's lives in the disaster area from the tenth day after the earthquake, and it is the various things that happened after the disaster that were deeply displayed in the lives of the victims.
On the tenth day of the earthquake, there were ruins everywhere, traffic was blocked, and people were living, living, eating, eating, and drinking. Following the camera, we can see women crying and weeping because of the loss of their loved ones; we can see ragged homeless people wandering among the ruins; we can see villagers who have to sell pigs in their family pens to make ends meet; we can see a family of three who learn that their son has died at school, go to the dormitory building to collect their belongings, and keep whimpering... The earthquake broke the original order and rules and changed the lives of all people in the disaster area. In addition to the sadness and pain, we also see cold-bloodedness and ignorance with the camera: people rummaging through the ruins for wires and iron tools that can be sold, and even forcibly stealing aluminum window frames, roller shutter door shafts, and furniture utensils from houses that have not yet collapsed; the monks and Daoist friends who are hidden in the mountains swear to the camera that this is the punishment of the gods, because people are too poor to worship the land lord, so they did not block this disaster for people, etc. People have their own ideas and opinions. In this way, in the corners that the media lens can't see, we learn about a purer life atmosphere.
On the 210th day of the earthquake, in the middle of this cold winter, people are still complaining about the problem of post-disaster reconstruction and disaster relief funds in preparation for the New Year; refugee resettlement is still underway, and in order to meet the upcoming leadership, people have also thoroughly cleaned up the villages; the government's promise to let people live in new resettlement houses before the arrival of winter has not been fulfilled in every area, and in the simple resettlement housing area, poor quality transformers continue to cause power outages... Even the responsible government has no way to put Huizeshi to every corner, and in the midst of complaints, we feel helplessness and powerlessness. At the same time, the endless stream of tourists visiting, the people of the county are still peddling tragic scene CDs, bargaining with tourists... Life is to try to survive in any situation. The scenes and stories presented in this film are truly frightening.
The whole film is narrated from the first perspective, showing the audience the various situations of people after the 5.12 earthquake from a new perspective, plain but real. The narrative structure is displayed in a segmented manner, using fragments and scenes, small things, and a few dialogues to construct the entire documentary, and there is no clear logical relationship between the characters and the content of each stage, and the content coverage is greater. In the narrative process, the film adopts a panoramic narrative technique, showing the daily life of the refugees after the disaster in a bland documentary, making it difficult to forget these ordinary characters in the camera. The narrative perspective is shown in a group portrait style, the narrative roles are constantly changing, and the narrative content is chaotic and varied, allowing the audience to feel and experience the living conditions of people after the earthquake. In terms of narrative time, 10 days after the earthquake and 210 days after the earthquake are recorded in chronological order, and the changes are presented through the environment, clothing, and weather, which is natural and smooth. The director's own attitude and subconscious are expressed by a special person, the tramp. The tramp runs through the film, as a bystander witnessing the warmth and coldness of human nature. The director is also like this, with the eyes of others, with his human kiss, with the real lens to explain the performance of human beings under natural disasters, to explain human nature and survival. When the audience is asked to reflect on the irrationality of some of the formalistic practices of the government from the content of the expression, it also reflects on the cowardly and selfish side of our people.
Documentaries tell us that there is more to the world than we see.
Documentaries are about the world. Fundamentally, documentaries are also one of the ways that human beings understand and see the world, and for the events that happen and the facts that exist, unlike those mainstream media, party news, and real-time broadcasts, documentaries will give us a new experience. The documentary is centered on people, centered on human values, the content is absolutely true rather than fictional, and its origin lies in the existence of lost history and reality. No matter what the topic of each director chooses, what the shooting process is, what is recorded through the lens must be real, and the truth is the life of the documentary. Ordinary life, finding a good entry point, can be used to reveal the essence and true meaning of life.
Documentaries can give you another pair of eyes to see the world. As a director, one of my professional qualities is to discover the extraordinary in daily life. And what every documentary work shows must be a story and content that is not known to most people in the real world. Taking "1428" as an example, we can indeed see the process of unity of purpose to fight earthquakes and provide disaster relief after the earthquake, we can see the measures taken by the national government to actively assist and dispatch personnel to rush to disaster relief, we can secretly pray for the people in the disaster area, and we are also moved by the unity of the whole country. But what about the lives and feelings of the people in the disaster areas as the most direct victims? How many of the 70,000 compatriots lost their lives in an instant are invisible to the rest of us? The success of "1428" lies in recording the most real situation from the perspective of a civilian, so that we know that there are still people living in pain in the margins where the government cannot comfort them; under the overwhelming positive reports, there are also the selfishness and ugliness of human nature; in the face of the heavy blows of life, there are still people who stubbornly pursue to live... This world is not only the side we see.
In the long course of history, it picks up the scattered fragments that have been neglected, and records them well, so that in the future it can tell you another look like the world. Perhaps this is its most precious meaning.