jeanne boden

premiere tomorrow! some last snapshots of the making of wayn traub's 'maria magdalena'

Premiere tomorrow - Wayn Traub's 'Maria Magdalena'. Don't miss it!

wayn traub film shooting - dancer wang yingyu

Wang Yingyu from the Beijing Dance Academie having a break in the studio in Beijing. 10 more days to go to the premiere Wayn Traub's Maria Magdalena! A few days ago I had the pleasure of seeing a few fragments and I can tell you: it looks promising!

wayn traub film shooting - actor andy ng

After shooting the 'dancing nuns' for Wayn Traub's production 'Maria Magdalena' in Beijing we went to Hong Kong. Especialy the shooting on the Islands around Saikung was absolutely spectacular. Hong Kong actor Andy NG did not have an easy time playing the lost soldier on the graveyard Island. You can see more of the making off here.

wayn traub film shooting - hong kong saikung

Saikung, early morning, before the shooting

wayn traub film shooting - saikung

Three more weeks to go to the premiere of the cinema-opera Maria Magdalena. Premiere is at the Bourla Antwerp.

wayn traub film shooting - studio in beijing 星光影视之家

Our budget wasn't high, therefore we skipped the fancy opportunities and famous people we first negotiated with in the center of Beijing and we ended up in the 星光影视之家 studio, the 'Starshine Film and Television House', in the outskirts in the South of Beijing about an hour and a half drive from the center.

If you look carefully at the picture you will notice that as soon as you enter the gate you bump into a 'shadow wall'. This is the kind of wall I refer to in the title of my book The Wall Behind China's Open Door on. The original meaning of it is to keep bad spirits outside. I explained all that in the book so I will not repeat it here. 

 

The studio was a 单位, a work unit that apparently hadn't changed since Mao was still among the living. It had a hotel that felt a bit haunted, it had housing for the people working in the studio, and it had a dog, ducks, and chickens running around in the courtyard. The housekeeper was called Beibei 贝贝, something like 'darling'. 

The fire extinguish equipment outside made me wish everything would pass smoothly (though they probably had some decent fire extinguish equipment inside). We worked from early morning till late at night and again from early morning till late night, on and on. We worked so much that even the hardworking, experienced at 'eating bitterness 吃苦' Chinese were surprised we kept going and going. We really did away with the cliche the Chinese have about Europeans that we are lazy because we only want to work eight hours a day!

Each breakfast, lunch and dinner the local restaurant owner came with his tricycle loaded with food. At lunch we sometimes went over for a visit to the neighboring work unit where wooden furniture was being carved by hand.

And inside the studio we had the most unbelievable time. The dancers from the Beijing Dance Academy were absolutely amazing (the best in the world!), the young make-up and clothing designer Hu Lei, alias Alex Hoo as he called himself,was one out of a million, and the crew we had was top. Da Ming the light man declared Arnout the cameraman as his brother since they shared the same astrological sign. It was all like a never ending dream.

wayn traub directing the 'dancing nuns' in beijing

One more month to go to the premiere of Wayn Traub's 'Maria Magdalena'!

I have been an absolute fan of Wayn Traub's work for a long long time. One day, a number of years ago, our paths crossed. It was the start of a very nice cooperation, so I ended up doing the film production Asia for his latest movie. In 2007 and 2008 Wayn and I - and during the shooting Arnout Andre de la Porte - spent a lot of time in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau for the Chinese part of his movie in Maria Magdalena. In the days to come I will tell you more about our adventures dealing with film studios, local crew, dancers from the Beijing Dance Academy, and about the exotic Islands in Hong Kong at Saikung where we have been shooting.

beijing south station - migrant workers

In 2008 the Chongqing government installed a 'Migrant Worker's Day' to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the building of the area. The People's Daily reports that three migrant workers have made it to the top. For what it is worth - 3 people out of millions is not much - these things show the concern of the government.
What is maybe more important is the solidarity between people. Wei Wei, himself a migrant worker, is one of the people who engages in the rights of migrant workers. A few years ago he established an organization Xiao Xiao Niao, meaning 'little bird' to help migrants to overcome there difficulties. They take action is case of non-payment, maltreatment or abuse. Contract conditions of migrant workers are studied by several organizations like for instance SACOM (students and scholars against corporate misbehavior).

Many films are made about the difficult situations of migrant workers in China. Two I like very much are Guo Xiaolu's 'The Concrete Revolution' telling the story of changing China, and David Redmon's 'Mardi Gras. Made in China' contrasting the production of beads in China with the consumation of these beads in the USA at the carnival festival. A shocking eye-opener this last one is as it strongly shows the ignorance of a consumer society.