Grandpa Gu brings past to life on the silver screen
"In the past we preferred Hollywood hits, but today Grandpa Gu's films tell us more than anything depicted on the silver screen."
Veteran documentary maker Gu Quanxiong, 73, has drawn inspiration from these words, spoken by a college student, as he wages his campaign to show good movies to young audiences.
Gu, known as Grandpa Gu by his audience, shows classic documentary films to young people in the hope that the films will inspire them as they did him.
Since 2002, Gu, accompanied by his wife and eight boxes of films, has been making regular trips to remote parts of more than 20 provinces, showing documentaries to kids for free. His goal is to reveal to the new generation the ideals and thoughts of their forebears.
"Young people nowadays swoon for martial arts and horror films, but we want to bring them pictures that are more meaningful and thoughtful, more than just violence and thrills," Gong Xiajuan, Gu's wife, said.
Gu, a former reporter, photographer and director of the Central Documentary Film Studio, has a reputation for "writing poems with the camera". He has won a Golden Rooster Award, Mass Film Hundred Flowers Award and the Hua Biao Award - the top three Chinese film awards - as well as several international awards.
Gu has used his own savings to purchase copies of classic documentaries from the studios and then transfer them to hundreds of VCDs for his tour.
He wants to "repay the debt of gratitude to the new society built by the Communist Party of China that once saved my life".
He is referring to the treatment that saved him from schistosomiasis and tuberculosis when he was a child and, later, to the free education he received at the Beijing Film Academy, where he learned the art of photography.
His plan to proselytize about the cinema was born when Gu laid eyes on the cinemas of Yan'an City in Shaanxi Province, the heart of the revolution. Many of them had been transformed into shops or dance halls and were no longer showing films.
He started by presenting his films to the local elderly community, and the first showing made for a joyful night.
But it was not pure.
An old man told Gu that young people were increasingly exposed to violent and sexy entertainment.
Gu and his wife decided to take action. They planned a tour to show their classic documentary films to young audiences in schools around the country. They also learned from university students how to communicate with audiences.
They have received warm welcomes wherever they have traveled. And, at the suggestion of a professor at Xiamen University, the "grandparents" decided to incorporate inspirational speeches into their program to introduce the younger generation to first-hand accounts of a bygone era.
"Our travels to remote areas have become something of a challenge because we are getting older, but whatever happens, I'll keep the films going," Gu said.
He certainly shows no signs of slowing down. He and his wife plan to take their show to the southwest later this year.
China Daily
(China Daily 04/03/2008 page6)
