Just an Alien – Hua Weicheng
$299.00
In the early morning, the madman awakened the magical copycat amusement park, the Foreigners’ Street, like a wizard. Then, during the day’s tour, he seemed to have experienced its changes from prosperity to decline.
Description
Synopsis of Just an Alien
Foreigners’ Street, a copycat amusement park on the outskirts of Chongqing, opened to the public in 2006. Pyramids, statues of Jesus, mini Manhattan, UFOs, haunted houses, these crude imitations and whimsical postmodern installations have filled a generation of Chongqingers’ more-than-dreamy weekends.
Foreigners’ Street as an amusement park is a concept introduced from the West. However, compared to Disney, it is so primitive, rustic, and cheap, yet it is so ahead of its time in its openness and public nature. The Foreigners’ Street without foreigners is a playground and safe haven for residents, farmers, vendors, scavengers, and vagrants. All kinds of cultures coexist here, reaching a natural harmony in the midst of chaos.
On the first day of shooting the Foreigners’ Street project, the director met the dirty-looking Sun Zhiguo. Sun was originally a member of the Sichuan Elder Brothers Society who was a gangster. He has been wandering this amusement park since he went mad, talking about mysterious concepts, and is known as the “Emperor of the Foreigners’ Street”. The director’s vision follows Sun Zhiguo and incorporates this amusement park in Sun’s eyes into his own creation, making his debut documentary film Just an Alien.
With the development of Chongqing, the land where the Foreigners’ Street was located became a potential stock in the eyes of investors. More than a decade later, unsurprisingly, this wildly growing and bizarre space spawned by suburban development, was again lost to urban development, and eventually demolished in 2019 to become part of a unified space planned for construction.
After the development of a civilization such as ours, in which all such dissimilarities are regarded as discordant and eradicated, what is left of this civilization?
Information
1 hour 12 minutes | English & Simplified Chinese subtitles | HD (1920×1080)
China, Israel* | 2022
Director: Hua Weicheng
*Production only, not location of shooting.
Awards & Film Festivals
1. Nomination for Envision Competition, 2022 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
2. Official Selection of Section of Fictions of Reality, 2023 Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival (FIDBA)
3. Guyu Select of IDF Pitching Section, 2021 West Lake International Documentary Festival
Highlight Endorsement
“This film is a profound trip into a space for contemplation, surprise, amazement, and at the same time reflection on the world, on consumerism, on material life, on detachment from that, on the sanity of being detached and of being able to use the bizarre as if it was normal. It is a complex and deeply provocative work that we would love to share with others.”
Orwa Nyrabia, Artistic Director of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
“There is tension in the work, and the author has the power to complete a marvelous visual journey between being mesmerized and entranced. The beginning and the end of the film form a clever closed loop, and the strong sense of authorship and stylistic self-awareness make this film unique.”
Li Xiaofeng, Documentary Filmmaker / Professor at College of Arts and Media, Tongji University
“A masterpiece of magical realism, absurd tragedy, black comedy, and spiritual work!”
Cao Lu Chong, Douban Reviewer
Reasons for Recommendation
1. It is a very refreshing look at this amusement park from a homeless person’s point of view, and at the same time brings up all the regrets of urban demolition.
2. The film shows the interaction between people and space very well. The best thing is that it also brings in time, the past, the present and the future.
3. Just an Alien has great subjects and themes, and you can feel that the director is really approaching the world without prejudice.
