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15th DMZ Docs(2023)

I AM DOCU



TENG Yuhan

  • China
  • 2023
  • 85min
  • 12 +
  • DCP
  • color

Asian premiere

Synopsis

Gaga-dance, a disco-like free-style dancing on the streets of China, with a devoted and massive online follower base, it is a phenomenon that sweeps through the underworld of the Internet. Small town Boy K, bored by working in the duck down factory, runs away. He bumps into the Pink Hair Dancing Group and falls in love with B Girl. They dream of winning the upcoming Gaga-Dance Championship... Bizarre and crazy, God or godless, Welcome to our Gagaland...

Review

Gagaland is a piece of work that embodies the youthful and imaginative perspective of a unique director, translating the street dance culture of China's streets into art. The director established "Gagaland" to capture the freedom and wildness inherent in street dancing, enlisting the renowned dancer Red Hair to embody the spirit of Gagaland and perform as its Pink Hair. This film serves as both a dance film that aims to capture the essence of street dancing and a kind of biographical account of Red Hair. It also acts as a report on the struggles of poverty and social control in its era, while simultaneously telling the story of the social media generation overcoming these challenges. The multifaceted nature of the film is not arranged in a linear fashion, rather, it's a wild and exuberant portrayal that resists conventional order. It's as if watching the film leads one to navigate the algorithms of a scattered website across various content channels on a single platform, yet also following a story centered around precious values and emotions that must be preserved under any circumstance.

Director

  • TENG Yuhan

    Born in Jilin Province of China, Teng won First Place in the 2016 National New Concept Writing Competition. At age 16, she initiated Zéro de conduit film screening platform that partnered with grass-root organizations to promote alternative and artistic films. She was admitted first place into the Beijing Film Academy (BFA) in 2017 but dropped out. She completed her first film Gagaland and went to Dongguan to work in a factory, start recording her life with other female factory.

Credit