I recently heard from filmmaker Miao Wang, whose new feature length documentary Beijing Taxi will make its world premiere next month at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin.
The film follows the stories of three cabbies living in Beijing in the years immediately preceding the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and provides an eye-opening glimpse into the change occuring in a China on its rapid road to modernization. Here's a excerpt from the official synopsis:
Set in the two years of the 2008 Olympics games build-up, Beijing Taxi is a multilayered feature documentary that vividly portrays the ancient capital of China going through a profoundly transformational arch. Through a humanistic lens, the stories of three taxi drivers connect a morphing cityscape and tales of ordinary citizens searching for their place amidst this dizzying pace of change. Candid and perceptive in its filming approach and highly cinematic and verite in style, Beijing Taxi takes us on a lyrical journey into fragments of a society riding the bumpy roads to modernization.I remember seeing some footage from this film a couple of years ago in its early funding stages. It looks pretty fascinating, especially now, after the 2008 Olympics have come and gone. Watch the trailer above. To learn more about the film, go to the Beijing Taxi website here.
Still in the throes of postproduction, Miao is still trying to raise funds (a total of $11,000) to bring Beijing Taxi to the finish line and to the festival. The funding deadline is this Sunday, February 14. If you'd like to make a pledge towards the completion of the film, go to Beijing Taxi's Kickstarter page.
