Proposal 1 :
Chinese famine of 1942–43 in Henan Province
In 1942, due to the war and the famine, people in Henan was suffering from hungerness. They moved from country into cities to get food, the images above are the pictures taken when people were moving for having a life with food and warmth. People died due to the illness, hungerness and fights.
A movie from director Xiaogang Feng, “Back to 1942”
Proposal 2: Farewell My Concubine
Brochure about the story of the sad romance between Dieyi Chemg and Xiaolou Duan.
Final Version of the ‘Fairwell My Concubine’.
For the final sequential recut, I chose to focus on the relationship between two actors of the opera in the movie. They were best friend and they grew up together in the place where they were educated to learn Beijing Opera. However, when the main character began to perform female characters, he found his real identity through female’s behavior. Simultaneously, because of the harshness of their teacher during the apprentice period. The main character, Dieyi, was forced to remember the lyrics of each opera. He practiced day and night. In the end, he became the most famous opera actor who perform female roles at the time(1930s). He and his best friend, Xiaolou, co-worked on the stage performed “Fairwell my Concubine”, were all known by people. As time goes by, Dieyi found himself in love with Xiaolou. Specifically, he couldn’t live without the existence of Xiaolou. Dieyi thought Xiaolou is his soulmate, no matter in the opera or in the real life. Nevertheless, Xiaolou found that Dieyi is too devoted in recognizing himself in female identity through performing of female roles. Xiaolou tried to tell Dieyi that he cannot believe the opera. He has to live a normal life. The fact is that Dieyi knew he is normal in anything. He knew it is the right thing to fall in love with any one. Dieyi hoped to perform with Xiaolou for the rest of their lives, because it is the only way to stay with Xiaolou. However, Xiaolou married with a pretty woman who shares lots of interests with Xiaolou. When he realized that he is not the right person for Xiaolou, neither his gender nor his charactristics, he was despaired.
This 1 minute short video briefly talked about how Dieyi’s identity gradually formed and how Dieyi and Xiaolou’s relationship were. Also, how gay issue was in the past than in the recent society when LGBTQ groups are fully supported.