BEIJING TAXI
http://www.beijingtaxithefilm.com
Directed by Miao Wang
2010, 78 min
Download Online Press Kit | Stills
REVIEWS
"Evocative"
Michelle Kung, Wall Street Journal
"An Outstanding Ride... dips us under the mainstream media's radar screen and places us in the seat of a journey through the capital of China: a lyrical, funny and at times bitter journey... It's gritty and it's beautiful; the focus on the subjects is sharp, yet you also get a sense of the larger China... "
Stewart Nusbaumer, The Huffington Post
"Strikingly gorgeous... Revelatory, an admirably formal presentation of the baseline texture of contemporary Beijing. It's not just valuable for the record, it's elegant in the process."
Vadim Rizov, Green Cine
"Rich and culturally challenging."
Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle
"Quiet, beautiful, contemplative."
Math, Austinist
"Wang has a gift for defamiliarization, transforming the everyday into something beguiling... "
Victoria Large, Notcoming.com
"The characters in the film are reality-television compelling, and Wang... matches an outsiders fascination about everything with an emigrant's appreciation for what Beijing is leaving behind in their embrace of modernity."
Martin L. Johnson, Baltimore City Paper
"Beijing Taxi functions on a much higher level..."
Don Simpson, Smells Like Screen Spirit
SYNOPSIS
BEIJING TAXI is a feature-length documentary that vividly portrays the ancient capital of China undergoing a profound transformation. The intimate lives of three taxi drivers are seen through a humanistic lens as they navigate a quickly morphing city, confronting modern issues and changing values. The three protagonists radiate a warm sense of humanity despite the struggles that each faces in adapting to new realities of life in the modern city. With stunning imagery of Beijing and a contemporary score rich in atmosphere, BEIJING TAXI communicates a visceral sense of the common citizens’ persistent attempts to grasp the elusive. The 2008 Summer Olympic Games serve as the backdrop for BEIJING TAXI's story, a coming out party for a rising nation and a metaphor for Chinese society and its struggles to reconcile enormous contradictions while adjusting to a new capitalist system that can seem foreign to some in the Communist-ruled and educated society. Candid and perceptive in its filming approach and highly cinematic and moody in style, BEIJING TAXI takes us on a lyrical journey through fragments of a society riding the bumpy roads to modernization. Though its destination unknown, the drivers continue to forge ahead.
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UPCOMING SCREENINGS
September 7, 2010
City College of NJ
Director Miao Wang in person
September 9, 2010
OPENING NIGHT FILM
Martha's Vineyard Film Festival
Martha's Vineyard, MA
Director Miao Wang in person
September 19, 2010
CinemaEast Austin
Austin, TX
Director Miao Wang in person
September 24-25, 2010
Sidewalk Film Festival
Birmington, AL
Director Miao Wang in person
October 4, 2010
IFC Center
NY, NY
Director Miao Wang in person
October 15-18, 2010
Hawaii International Film Festival
Honolulu, Hawaii
http://hiff.org/
Director Miao Wang in person
November 16, 2010
Coolidge Corner, co-presentation by Primary Source
Boston, MA
Director Miao Wang in person
RECENT SCREENINGS
July 8 & 9, 2010
Meta House
Phenom Pehn, Cambodia
http://www.meta-house.com/
Director Miao Wang in person
July 15 & 17, 2010
Asia Society Hong Kong, The Grand Cinema
Kowloon, Hong Kong
http://www.asiasociety.org/arts-culture/film/aspirasians-asia-society-summer-film-series-2010
Director Miao Wang in person
June 3, 2010
Little Rock Film Festival
Little Rock, Arkansas
http://littlerock.bside.com/2010/films/beijingtaxi_littlerock2010
May 7 & 8, 2010
Maryland Film Festival
Baltimore, MD
http://www.md-filmfest.com/films.cfm?id=258
Director Miao Wang in person
May 2, 2010
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
Los Angeles, CA
http://asianfilmfestla.org/2010/program-guide/program-37/
Director Miao Wang in person
April 24, 2010
Independent Film Festival of Boston
Boston, MA
http://www.iffboston.org/
Director Miao Wang in person
April 16, 2010
Beijing Taxi and Yellow Ox Mountain Double Feature
Yale University Council on East Asian Studies
New Haven, CT
http://eastasianstudies.research.yale.edu/
Director Miao Wang in person
March 15, 16, & 19, 2010
WORLD PREMIERE
South by South West Film Festival
Austin, TX
http://sxsw.com/
Director Miao Wang in person