Selections of Wang Shui-bo

TEXT:Sue Wang    DATE: 2011.12.6

(in the sequence of editing)  Courtesy of Wang Shui-bo.

 

The Mighty River (1994)             Running Time: 24 minutes

Directed by Frederic Back and assisted by Wang Shui-bo

It has been among the Academy Award Nominee, Best Animated Short and won the Grand Prize Winner at the International Animated Film Festival, France and Los Angeles Critics Award.

Using the St. Lawrence River as its focus, The Mighty River traces the history of this majestic waterway, from its natural beginnings through its early use by native people and European settlers to the present day. Colors, forms, and images seamlessly flow together, blended with poetic narration and evocative music. The river is portrayed as one of nature's most glorious habitats, a source of beauty and a seemingly unlimited provider of life. But the river's resources are not unlimited. Gradually, the river is surrounded by factories and polluted with waste, its wildlife decimated and grand forests cut down. Finally, its resources over-exploited, the river calls out for rebirth (quoted from www.videoproject.com).

Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square (1998)          Running Time: 29 minutes

Directed by Wang Shuibo

It is Wang Shui-bo’s first animated documentary , which is also a visual autobiography of an artist who grew up in China during the historic upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s and 1980s. A rich collage of original artwork and family and archival photos presents a personal perspective on the turbulent Cultural Revolution and the years that followed. For him and others of his generation, Tiananmen Square was the central symbol of the new China—a society to be based on equality and cooperation. Wang Shui-bo’s Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square artfully traces his roots and his own life of journey as he struggles to sort through ideology and arrive a truth. It has won the Oscar Nomination for Best Short Documentary in 1999 while it got the highest scores of nomination with high evaluation from the jury who commented that it has made a revolutionary experiment in the style of documentaries.

Wish You Were Here (2007)          Running Time: 3 minutes

Directed by Wang Shui-bo

It belongs to the six original short films were commissioned from a select group of award-winning Canadian directors with the working theme as Obsession.

It tells about a love triangle with a twist. Melissa is a young woman from Shanghai living in Montreal. For the last two years she has been obsessed with her old boyfriend, Ming. She writes to him every day. But her letters never get answered. Thomas is in love with Melissa, but he can’t seem to get through to her. He finally finds out why.

They Chose China (2005)                  Running Time: 52 minutes

Directed by Wang Shui-bo and Produced by Claude Bonin

At the end of the Korean War in 1954, captured UN soldiers held in POW camps were free to return home. Those soldiers who refused repatriation to their homeland were transferred to a neutral zone and given 90 days to reconsider their decision. Surprisingly, among them are 21 American soldiers who defiantly decided to stay in China. They Chose China recounts these soldiers' stories.

When McCarthyism was at its height, many Americans believed these young men had been brainwashed by Chinese communists through a new form of thought control. But what really happened? They Chose China features never-before-seen footage from the Chinese camps as well as interviews with former POWs and their families, to tell the fascinating stories of these forgotten American. Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Wang Shui-Bo, They Chose China captures this astonishing story as viewers meet and begin to understand this group of courageous men who fought for, and then cut ties with, the United States of America (quoted from reviews made by CBC).