Always

Filmmaker Chen Deming knows that the miracle of poetry is that it can be found anywhere, by anyone. In the exquisitely rendered ALWAYS, he locates it within a Hunan village in China, where rural schoolchildren are encouraged to express themselves through writing: “How do you feel? What’s your opinion on the matter? Are you feeling sympathetic, sad, helpless, miserable, or something else?” For Gong Youbin, a young adolescent boy, this is a vital act of being and becoming in the world, one where his days are spent harvesting in fields alongside his struggling single father and grandparents. Inspired by the riches of his natural surroundings, he crafts poems about time, light, solitude and landscapes that reveal the spirit of an inquisitive observer. Alternating between striking black-and-white images of childhood and the vibrant blues and greens of the verdant mountains in the present, the film offers a meditative portrait of a child capable of finding—and creating—beauty, despite his circumstances. A form of poetry itself, Chen’s lyrical documentary is a testament to the power of cinema to transform every life into a work of art. (Winnie Wang)

Chen Deming: EVERYTHING IS NORMAL (2016, K), NIGHT TOUR (2018, K), BUTTERFLY OVERLAP (2021, K), SONG OF SHIRATORI (2022)