Concrete Revolution        

Director: Xiaolu Guo
Running Time: 62 minutes   
UK/China 2004

Post Screening Discussion with Director

A mind blowing view of workers involved in the massive building programme in Beijing, which is striving for the look of full modernization by the 2008 Olympic Games.

There are between 80 to 120 million construction workers in Beijing and  ‘They’re sacrificing their whole youth to build the country’ (Xiaolu)  with terrible safety records- 1170 workers died between January and November last year and most are paid less than $25 a month.  

A far cry from the founding of communist China in 1949,  when construction workers were heroes. One named Lei Feng attained martyr status after being killed in a work related accident aged 22. 

Stunning images that take us from the gargantuan nightscapes of the new China to the peaceful fragility of the Old China.

Discussion:

27 October 7.00 p.m. Ruskin College
BabelFest at Oxdox in discussion with Xiaolu Guo on her new novel 'Stone Village', just published by Chatto and Windus Random House.

Screening:

27 October 7.25 p.m. Ruskin College