The Recorder’s Presence and Position（二）: Indie Doc 'Falling from the Sky' + Director’s Book Signin
6:00 PM Doors Open
6:05 – 8:35 PM Film Screening – ‘Falling from the Sky’ with English subtitle
8:40 – 9:00 PM Book Signing
Falling from the Sky is the debut feature-length independent documentary by Zhang Zanbo, released in 2009. The film’s page was later removed from Douban, and viewers have had to resort to alternative discussion threads. It records life in Suining County, Hunan, a region where rocket and satellite debris frequently falls.
Through the imagery of “things descending from the sky,” the film weaves a subtle but tense narrative between state power and local fate, giving voice to people whose lives often lie at the margins of national narratives.
In our current era, Falling from the Sky still resonates. As nations celebrate technological brilliance and grand narratives, there are silenced landscapes and hidden lives continuing to bear the weight of “falling from above.” We invite you to join us to watch the film, and to converse live with the director—rethinking presence and position through a shared encounter.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2136916/
Zhang Zanbo
Zhang Zanbo is an independent documentary filmmaker and writer from Shaoyang, Hunan, China.
He received his master’s degree in directing from the Beijing Film Academy in 2005 and completed his first feature-length documentary Falling from the Sky in 2009.
His fourth documentary, The Road (2015), was selected for the Main Competition of the 28th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 53rd Golden Horse Awards as well as awarded Best Chinese Documentary at the 10th Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF).
His nonfiction book The Road: A Slow Life in Fast China won the Taipei International Book Exhibition Award for Nonfiction and the Open Book Award for Best Chinese Writing in 2015.
Zhang has also served as a jury member for the Golden Horse Awards, the Taoyuan Film Festival, and the Chinese Documentary Pitching Forum.