Who Killed Our Children -- Film Review
BOTTOM LINE: A documentary that provokes but does not satisfy interest in infrastructural problems related to the Sichuan earthquake.
October 08, 2008
By Maggie Lee
Pusan International Film Festival
More Pusan festival reviews
The catastrophic earthquake that broke out in China's Sichuan province on May 28 has held world media in thrall with stories of sacrifice and courage, and from official Chinese media, eulogies on the PLA's heroism and the government's concern. Pan Jianlin's documentary "Who Killed Our Children" could have been a discomforting voice of dissent that exposes the widespread problem of shoddy construction in China, which some assert caused or exacerbated casualties. However, Pan's filmmaking approach is impressionistic, guerrilla-style, unsupported by hard data and journalistic procedures.
The hot button topic of "tofu" buildings, especially schools that suffered huge casualties, is widely discussed on a civilian level in China. The news may not have filtered fully to a western audience, so this work will be of interest to them as an entry point to the subject. Festival invitations should follow its Pusan premiere.
The film is shot in Qingchuan, one of the disaster areas where a middle school collapsed killing hundreds of children. Pan highlighted four issues that cause the parents outrage, but the most bitter conflict concerned discrepancies between the official death count jointly provided by the school and government agents and the parents' own tally. Former school staff and government officials argue that the casualties are only caused by nature and logistical reasons rather than human error.
Pan limits the scope of his investigation to interviewing the victims' parents, some surviving students, and members from the school and rescue team. Subtitles before end credits claim that the filmmaker was detained by police for two days and had most of his footage confiscated. This may or may not be attributed to the incompleteness of background and data available in the screening copy.
As a result, neither the allegations nor defense can be proven by any concrete evidence. The most deep-rooted and far reaching problem of construction malpractice is hardly examined at all, with just one person representing the "Entrepeneur Relief Volunteers" asserting that it is a nationwide problem. There is not even any full view given to the site where the school collapsed, and no conclusive figure on how many similar cases exist.
紀錄片“誰殺了我們的孩子”在釜山
http://news.sina.com 2008年10月10日 00:46 德國之聲中文網
中國導演潘劍林攜一部故事片和一部紀錄片參加將在10月10日結束的韓國釜山電影節。他的紀錄片“誰殺了我們的孩子”是在四川大地震發生六天後在重災區青川縣拍攝的，也是有關汶川大地震的第一部問世紀錄片。潘劍林可能因為擅自攜帶此片國外參展而遭遇麻煩。
中國獨立製片人和導演潘劍林以兩部新作"流氓的盛宴"和紀錄片"誰殺了我們的孩子"亮相第13屆釜山電影節，其中故事片"流氓的盛宴"不久前獲得第61屆瑞士洛伽諾國際電影節評委會特別獎，"誰殺了我們的孩子"則作為唯一部中國作品參加電影節紀錄片競賽單元。潘劍林去年也曾在釜山亮相，以故事片"夜未央"在電影節上引起關注。
潘劍林在釜山電影節上接受法新社採訪時介紹了"誰殺了我們的孩子"的拍攝過程。他說，四川5‧12大地震時他正在北京，地震發生六天後他就帶著攝影機來到地震重災區廣元市青川縣，拍攝的重點時是那里的木魚鎮初級中學。地震中，木魚中學的一幢三層宿舍樓倒塌，當時八百多名學生正在午睡，近三百名學生因此喪生。潘劍林說，"整個宿舍樓成為一片廢墟，什麼都沒剩下。你不可能對這樣的場面有所心理上的準備。"
潘劍林將鏡頭對准了遇難學生家長和當地官員。悲慟中的學生家長指責學校建築質量的低劣才造成如此大的傷亡，並將憤怒指向地方官員，而這些官員則說那是因為地震破壞性實在太大了。潘劍林說："這些建築的質量十分糟糕，這在中國是個很大的問題。腐敗也時一個問題，這讓人感到恥辱。悲痛欲絕的家長們要討個說法。"
影片中，家長說官方說學校死了286個孩子，但實際數字應該有近600人。他們說，大部分孩子的遺體都在宿舍樓出口處附近疊在一起，有些孩子把手伸向門把手。影片中還有鏡頭表現了失去孩子的家長們組織起來，收集證據向地方政府抗議校舍建築質量低劣。
潘劍林告訴法新社，拍攝時，很多幸存者可能還沒有從驚恐中緩過神來，所以可能他們還願意面對鏡頭，但當地的官員則不大願意上鏡。地震過後三周，災區被隔離開來，媒體就很難進入了。潘劍林回到北京後，他的膠片被來訪的官員給沒收了。幸虧潘劍林事先做了備份，才得以攜此片來到釜山。
潘劍林說，他到四川地震災區是為了記錄事實真相，但是在這樣規模的悲劇面前，他覺得這是一件不可能的任務。他說："不可能證實什麼是真實的什麼是不真實的。也許每個人眼中都有自認為是真實的故事，但你不可能作出判定。"他還說："人們在精神上強烈受挫，誰都不知道該怎麼辦。他們不能做太多的事情，只能繼續生活下去。"
釜山電影節後，潘劍林計劃攜帶此篇參加更多的國際電影節，並一再表示他並不在乎回國後是否會受到處罰。他說："我只希望更多的人看到這部影片，因為我們不希望這些事情被遺忘。"
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