China

For Chinese parents, finding out that their kid is gay usually presents a major tragedy, with the big majority utterly unable to accept the homosexuality of their son or daughter. However, during recent years a fresh rainbow wind has been blowing over the Chinese mainland: a pioneer generation of Chinese parents has been stepping up and speaking out on their love for their gay kids. This documentary features 6 mothers from all over China, who talk openly and freely about their experiences with their homosexual children. With their love, they are giving a whole new definition to Chinese-style family bonds.

In the Greater Xing’ an Mountain of northern China, there is a group of people who share their life with the reindeers. These Ewenkis people came from Siberia over three hundred years ago. They have been living in the dense primeval forest and surviving on hunting and raising reindeers in their own traditional way. In 2003, the Reindeer Ewenkis came out of the forest and moved down to the new settlement built by the government. Now with hunting also banned, the Reindeer Ewenkis find themselves in a dilemma. Time is passing… the sounds of deer bells are fading away… Maria Suo, the last chief of the tribe, watches the changing of time helplessly. But does the forest the Ewenkis used to know still belong to them?

Each Floral-belt Dai village has a male “Commune-head” who take charge of annual collective ceremonies as “Village Sacrifice” and “Village Exorcism”. These are purification rituals and fete for the village’s god “Buzhaoshe”. Besides, there’s a “Village’s Chief Witch” who’s responsible for communication with the god through trance. This man and woman compose the traditional hierarchy of a Dai village. The Commune-head is picked out through a God election ritual. Every adult man of the village offers a clothes and a bowl of rice to the ritual. A presider weighs all candidates’ clothes with a steelyard. With rice putting in or out the clothes, he makes all clothes balanced. Then he prays to the god Buzhaoshe, and weighs the clothes again. This time some clothes turn heavier. The heaviest one enables its owner to be the new Commune-head. This is an old custom of the Dai people which lasts thousands years. But this year we witnessed an unprecedented challenge in the Areca Village. Through the ritual of several days, all chosen ones refused to become Commune-head desperately. The ritual could not be fulfilled in a panic. Villagers disputed over the situation. Powers conflict in this gambling. In the following days, villagers provided four solutions. Among which emerges the tension between tradition and new culture, folk belief and government agents. Days later, Areca Village held a full member gathering, in which villagers made their decision through “voice voting”. Two months later, in the Reelecting of the Village Committee, the old mayor of the village was voted out. A year later, the new mayor made nice to conciliate the tradition power. New balance was established over odds. This becomes the epilogue of this documentary.

Gongbo is an ordinary peasant living in Tibet whose life is simple and plain. He works, provides for the whole family and raises children. Just like anyone else living in the world, Gongbo has to sustain various pressures from the life, such as his expectation of another son after his wife’s bearing six daughters consistently, his anxiety for the debt due to the bank for buying a tractor and his disappointment on his son who did not derive enough money as expected from out of towns.

However, Gongbo will never be overwhelmed by these troubles since the life is bringing him friends, the enjoyment of sunlight and the calmness of the night. Gongbo appreciates to the nature and the life, which can be recognized and felt from his face and his songs. If happy life represents hope and satisfaction, and if happiness only means the fulfilled heart and the calmness from the deep inside, Gongbo is happy.

Wulubutie is an Oroqen settlement in the northern reaches of Inner Mongolia; the name means “Lost Mountain” in the Oroqen language.

Gelibao, an Oroqen hunter, runs a horse farm in the mountains of Wulubutie, where he raises 100 horses in the old way. Though hunting has been outlawed, Gelibao will sometimes go out into the mountains on a hunt, more in remembrance of his culture than to sustain himself. Gelibao’s son, Liang Liang, and his friends are still children of the forest, but tend more towards modern entertainment, like the cross-country motorcycle race that they have organized. In this way they vent the frustration of an interrupted youth.

“Lost Mountain” follows Gelibao and his son’s generation, and the mystery of a dead horse.