Still Life

Content:

Entire towns on the Yangtze River had to be relocated for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world. "Still Life" shows the effects of this gigantic infrastructure project. In the midst of the slowly disappearing city of Fengji, two people search for their partners. A poetic yet unembellished look at the price of modernization and the silent erosion of interpersonal relationships.

Introduction: Lisa Gotto (University of Vienna)

Background:

Film series: Hinterlands of Modernity. Infrastructure Scenes/Film
Since the beginning of cinema, films have repeatedly staged large infrastructure systems. Countless works deal with railroads, harbors, raw material extraction, cars, ships or telephones. This series focuses on a specific facet of the cinematic examination of infrastructures: the displaced social spaces, newly emerging wastelands, niches and peripheries, in short: the "hinterland" that modern infrastructures of the 20th century have created. Four films are dedicated to this other side of our infrastructural modernity, which can be observed in very different regions: in a major European city, in the US Rust Belt, on the Chilean Pacific coast and on the Chinese Yangtze River. The films will be presented by experts and then discussed together. The series accompanies a master's seminar on infrastructures in film at the Ruhr University Bochum.