Beijing Cotton-Fluffer 1999 Directed by Zhu Chuanming 北京弹匠

A young man has left his home village in Hunan Province for Beijing, to make a living fluffing cotton of old quilts and cushions. He lives in a makeshift roadside shack and waits for customers to arrive. The filmmaker, a student at the Beijing Film Academy, befriends the young migrant and begins to record his daily life. The video shows him in his frustration and loneliness at his destitute life in the big city. An old hometown friend, now a college student, is not terribly happy to meet him again. Poverty and power relations within his family limit his ambitions and memories of an old girlfriend leave him confused.

Country China
Language Mandarin
Spoken Language Mandarin
Release Date 24 November 1999
78 mins
Crew
Director