Doors 7:30p
Program 8:00p

UnionDocs
352 Onderdonk Ave
Ridgewood, NY

We’re delighted to co-present an evening of cinema and conversation with Nooks & Crannies (犄角旮旯)!

This screening brings together two striking documentaries by filmmaker Dongnan Chen陈东楠, each offering a deeply human portrait of communities on the edges of China’s rapid transformation.

Singing in the Wilderness 旷野歌声 traces the journey of a Miao ethnic Christian choir which is discovered by a propaganda official and propelled into the national spotlight while The Trail from Xinjiang 偷 follows Musa and his friends—young Uyghur men from China’s northwestern border—as they roam the great cities of the East.

Both films blur the line between reality and dreams, capturing the raw contradictions of contemporary China. As filmmaker Dongnan Chen reflects:

“Reality, dreams, and life on the screen—these images intertwine in such a way that I sometimes feel a deep sense of disorientation, unable to distinguish what is real and what is false, what is light and what is heavy. But perhaps it is precisely because of this that our lives are never just a fleeting, one-time experience. Because images are captured, they travel through time and reach different eyes at different moments. None of us are ever truly isolated, and our faces carry traces of countless others who have passed through our lives.”

Following the screening, join us for a remote conversation with Dongnan Chen, guided by filmmaker Ziru Wang王子儒! Come through!

Program

Singing in the Wilderness 旷野歌声

98 min, 2021, China

After hiding in the mountains for a century, a Miao ethnic Christian choir is discovered by a propaganda official and propelled into the national spotlight. As they navigate sudden fame, two young Miao villagers—along with their entire community—must reconcile faith, identity, and love with the shifting realities of modern China.

The Trail from Xinjiang 偷

36 min, 2013, China

Musa and his friends—young Uyghur men from China’s northwestern border—roam the great cities of the East, surviving on the margins. They talk, they remember home, they shoot up, and they practice the one skill they know best: stealing.

Program Duration: 134 mins

Bios

Dongnan Chen陈东楠, currently based in Shenzhen China, probes into the nuanced interplay between freedom and dilemma on the peripheries of the social fabric. Her portfolio includes shorts Sound of Vision 声音的颜色, The Trail From Xinjiang 偷, 14 Paintings 历历如画, and the feature Singing in the Wilderness 旷野歌声, which have received important backing from Sundance Institute, IDFA Bertha, Xining First, Field of Vision, DMZ etc, and went on to get Emmy nomination, and selected by IDFA, IFFR, Sundance, New Director/New Films, HotDocs…and were broadcasted on NHK, POV, KBS, PTS. Dongnan is a graduate from New York University and a fellow of IDFAcademy and Sundance story and edit lab.

Ziru Wang王子儒 is a female documentary director, a cinematographer and a theater worker and a non-fiction writer. She graduated from New York University in 2023, before which she gained her BA in Beijing Normal University studying films and theater. She is now working as an editor for independent filmmaker Alan Berliner. Ziru has been sensitive to current issues, but she always tends to present them in her uniquely gentle way through her accurate visuals. Her first documentary was selected by New York City Independent Film Festival, her short film Haunting Memory was premiered at Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, her non-fictions are available on iFeng and Tencent.