·Dmitri·Beijing

《Shoot for the Contents (1991)》
Film
101 minutes
Historic Site of Lu Xun Art Academy
May 20, 2006

Trinh T. Minh-ha’s film is an excursion into the maze of allegorical naming and storytelling in China. Shifting through questions of power and change, politics and culture, the film layers Chinese popular songs and classical music, the sayings of Mao and Confucius, women’s voices and the words of artists, philosophers and other cultural workers. Video
images emulate the gestures of calligraphy and contrast with film footage of rural China and stylized interviews. The title is based on saying of a Chinese lantern game, where people attempt to guess answers to riddles through a series of language puns, suggestions, and nuances. The film documents the shifts of interpretation in contemporary Chinese
culture and politics, and was shown in the Catholic church in Qiao Er Gou.