2023 / 71 min / Canada / Mandarin / 1.33:1 / Colour

Upstream: "I" am the main character of the film, and “I” am a wildlife photographer who takes my camera and subjective point of view on a journey from Canada back to my hometown in China. At the same time, a school of salmon makes the long journey from the Pacific Ocean, thousands of kilometers away, back to the freshwater river where they were born.

"Harbin, China—a place so cold it’s famous for its International Ice and Snow Festival. With his camera in hand, filmmaker Xin Liu returns to his native city in China’s northernmost province to visit his childhood friends, only to find that their lives and dreams have changed. But are they really his friends? And are those their dreams? In an unpredictable mix of fact and fiction, Liu presents a city as strange as its inhabitants. He meets up with a high school friend named Zhang, who once sold newspaper advertising but now has jumped the Firewall to become a popular YouTuber, illegally infiltrating Harbin’s abandoned industrial buildings. Liu also visits an ex-girlfriend, who greets him with regrets and accusations of abandonment. Shot from the filmmaker’s point of view throughout, Liu’s camera wanders onto trains, into cars, and onto streets, roaming a landscape of elusive characters. A unique, hybrid meditation on strange homecomings."

Aisha Jamal @Hot Docs 2023

Screening:

Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival, Canada - World Premiere

4.30.2023 & 5.5.2023, Tiff Bell Lightbox, Toronto

Funds:

Universal Studios Canada - Graduate Production Scholarship

York Centre for Asian Research - Canada‐China Initiatives Fund

Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Canada

Field Work Fund, York University

Press:

https://povmagazine.com/upstream-review-an-endurance-swim-in-old-waters/Upstream

Review: An Endurance Swim in Old Waters (BY POV)