Logline
(30 words)
A mesmerizing, one-of-a-kind window into modern China, People’s Park is a single-shot documentary that immerses viewers in an unbroken journey through a famous urban park in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Synopsis
(261 words)
“A walk through the park like no other, this brilliantly joyous conceptual documentary takes the vivid reality of an urban park: People’s Park in Chengdu, Sichuan, and, with a pure kind of cinema magic, makes it more real than real. Directors Libbie Cohn and J.P. Sniadecki use an utterly unique and perfectly apposite method of filming: they shoot their tour of the park in one continuous 75-minute long tracking shot. No cuts, no edits: the film starts, it rolls, it stops. Sounds simple, but in the completely uncontrolled context of a crowded Chinese public space, their work required meticulous preparation and rigorous execution to achieve what looks like a spontaneous result. Their camera, as it pans side to side and glides relentlessly forward, catches hundreds of Chinese urbanites out for fun, relaxation, socializing and freedom: eating, strolling, singing, practicing calligraphy, dancing (to various, surprising beats) and watching each other. And being watched (by us) in a way that, though it may start out with what feels like unadorned observation, slowly gathers a kind of ecstatic, trance-like groove, building to a rapturous climax, as people, movement, music, image and sound dance together: this is as close to pure pleasure as cinema can provide.
The soundscape is rich, complex and carefully manufactured, as is the preternaturally smooth movement of the camera, again the result of painstaking preparation and post-production. The result is something extraordinary: a documentary re-creation of reality, or rather a production of something super-real, that activates our sympathetic gaze and ecstatic participation.”
- Shelly Kracier, Vancouver International Film Festival
梗概
(285字)
生动欢快的概念纪录片《人民公园》是在成都人民公园里一段史无前例的漫步，纯艺术的摄影魔术般地使现实步步高于现实。导演张莫和杰鹏运用了独一无双恰到好 处的摄影手段, 即以75分钟不间断的单镜头(single shot)贯穿始终，没有剪辑，没有复制，从开拍到滚动再到终止， 行云流水毫无间断。 虽然听上去简单易行，但身处拥挤混乱的人群之中，没有精心准备，严谨步骤，根本不可能达到如此自然天成的影像效果。全片随着镜头左右上下挪动，抓住了上百 市民嬉闹，乘凉，聚会，吃饭，歌舞， 练书法… 的生活片段， 在人群，音响，形象，舞蹈的引导下，观众可谓渐入佳境，几臻电影欣赏的极乐之乡。
Short Synopsis
(87 words)
PEOPLE’S PARK is a 78-minute single shot documentary that immerses viewers in an unbroken journey through a famous urban park in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
The film explores the dozens of moods, rhythms, and pockets of performance coexisting in tight proximity within the park’s prismatic social space, capturing waltzing couples, mighty sycamores, karaoke singers, and buzzing cicadas in lush 5.1 surround sound.
A sensory meditation on cinematic time and space, PEOPLE’S PARK offers a fresh gaze at public interaction, leisure and self-expression in China.
