Video Librarian - July/August 2006

The Concrete Revolution
(2004) 60 min. In Chinese w/English subtitles. DVD: $99.95. Choices, Inc. PPR. Color cover. ISBN: 1-933724-00-5.

While the impact of economic reform in today's China is often portrayed in very positive terms, filmmaker Xiaolu Guo's documentary The Concrete Revolution looks at the other side of the coin, showcasing the enormous physical changes in Beijing, where whole neighborhoods are being demolished to make way for huge construction projects, often of very dubious merit (especially those in anticipation of the 2008 Olympic Games).

In addition, the film chronicles the devasting emotional toll on ordinary people, not only in terms of residents forced to abandon their homes without adequate compensation or alternative housing, but also of workers compelled to leave their families behind in distant areas to come to the capital to seek work in the booming building industry. The most poignant and powerful aspects here are certainly the interview segments that the director shot, often under severe restrictions from officials, with individuals she repeatedly returns to - an elderly woman turned out of her house, a homesick construction worker who doesn't know the purpose of the job he's employed on (and who hasn't been paid in weeks), and a depressed young project manager.

It's an affecting piece overall about the negative aspects of the ongoning Westernization of China. The DVD includes both dubbed and subtitled versions, as well as a text director's statment. Recommended. (F. Swietek)

Educational Media Reviews Online - June 7th, 2006

The Concrete Revolution

Reviewed by Michael J. Coffta, Bloomburg University of Pennsylvania

Directed By Xiaolu Guo
DVD – 60 minutes
College – Adult - Asian Studies

Recommended

“Gut wrenching” is the expression that comes to mind when viewing this film. Concrete Revolution examines the surge of construction across Beijing. Behind the veneer of preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Chinese government has ordered mass evictions from neighborhoods to make way for the construction of roadways, complexes, etc. The film provides several interviews of people displaced by the construction and follows one woman who valiantly, but fruitlessly, resisted her eviction. The scenes are poignant to say the very least.

The film does an excellent job of exploring the peripheral social issues related to the blitz of construction in Beijing. Several migrant workers are interviewed and explain the hardship of having to leave their farming villages and families in order to make a living in the city. Concrete Revolution also does a fine job of showing the evolution of family and social life in Beijing. The minds of younger Chinese are on “capitalist and leisure” motives rather than the collectivist mindset. The film is powerful, but leaves the viewer wanting more. One cannot find fault with the film makers for not being able to find comprehensive statistics on the construction and/or evictions, but some figures or estimates would have been appropriate here. Viewers should also be aware that there is a great deal of shaky camerawork. The film has a very slow pace which is exacerbated by a series of still pictures and sullen musical interludes. The DVD does, however, provide a link to an online lesson plan and guidebook, which educators may find extremely helpful. I recommend this film to educators who want to devote an emotional hour to the social impact of the construction in Beijing.

Utne Reader - September/October 2006

In preparation for the 2008 summer Olympics, thousands of homes and shops in Beijing's old alleyways, or hutongs, are being demolished, according to Chinese filmmaker Xiaolu Guo's The Concrete Revolution, a provocative documentary shot in 2004 and just released on DVD. Not only is the massive building boom displacing residents and destroying communities, it's sparking a civil war of sorts between the low-paid rural peasants who pour the concrete and the urbanites who are moving in. The evicted and the exploited, Guo's film convinces, are already among the losers in these games.