Short film features grassroots community heroes

By Chen Boyuan: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, May 15, 2015

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A dozen people with disabilities sit around a table and learn to fold origami cranes from a community volunteer who is also a handicapped person on Thursday, May 14 in a scene from a short film about the ordinary life of a community in Beijing.

The short film "Action Speaks Louder than Words" is the first-ever motion picture to be entirely funded by a residential community in Beijing. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn]

The short film "Action Speaks Louder than Words" is the first-ever motion picture to be entirely funded by a residential community in Beijing. The office of the Anzhen Community Subdistrict spent some 200,000 yuan (US$32,255) and invited more than 80 amateur actors and actresses, all residents of the community, to produce the film. The goal of the film is to spread the "spirit of grassroots heroes."

Apart from the origami scene, the seven-minute short film tells 20 stories in 42 scenes, all of which depict everyday life in the Anzhen Community. In one story, a grandmother helped pick up shattered glass in a stairwell to prevent it from injuring others, while in another, a middle-aged man reminded a young driver to turn off his headlights.

The film's director Liu Kai said the plot was "fairly simple." According to Liu, the film did not contain any touching scenes or try to tell a magnificent story with a clear moral, but only "depicted those very trivial things happening around us." But he said the so-called "trivial details," when put together, have the power to unite the neighborhood.

"The screenplay took two months to write. Each story was based on an actual one provided by people living in the neighborhood. Some actors were the real characters the film was modeled after," said Chen Jingchao, a chief of community work in Anzhen Community.

Chen said the short film’s production was part of the annual "Most Beautiful Anzhen People," a role model selection and award program. "We encourage people to pay attention to the 'micro-stories, and micro-energy' around us," she said. "The core socialist values should not just be slogans printed on banners and walls, but tangible, sincere principles reflected in these role models."

DVDs of the film will be made available to the public in July and will be distributed to local residents. The film will also be available on online video platforms.

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