Director Judith MacDougall, Kathy Zhang
Country/Production Australia
Release 2007
Length 60 mins
Format Colour / DVD / PAL / All region
Location VL ChinaPRC, Kunming / Asia
Language Chinese, English (Chinese, various dialects) (English sub)
Collection MacDougall - Judith
University Centre for Cross Cultural Research, Canberra
Order No RAI-209.2007.20
Sale Info See Film Prices General Collection; Not for Sale in USA
Hire Info See Film and Video Hire
Photography is known in China as the “Art of Regret”. In the rapidly changing city of Kunming, people are ambivalent about whether they want photography to be a medium of preservation and evidence, or of transformation and fantasy. While old photographs are cherished, digital technology can now make old people look young again. At computerized stalls in department stores, faces and clothing can be instantly transformed. An old-established studio digitally enhances the images made on their wooden 19th century portrait camera. Choices about how to regard history, reality, and material culture constantly confront everyone in contemporary China.
