Four Springs

The documentary follows the daily life of a family in Dushan, a remote town in Guizhou province in the southwest of China. The person holding the camera is the director, and the people he films are his own parents. Across four springs the housework, the singing, the walks into the hills, the visits among relatives, the funerals, the reunions and the departures are all recorded. The film shows how the old couple stand towards life, and how they stand after a loss that cannot be taken back. The camera always looks from inside the house; no great event is told, only the years piling on one another, and at some point the recording itself becomes the family memory. Lu Qingyi’s hundred and five minute Chinese documentary was completed in 2019.