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Wikipedia article'Last Train Home' is a 2009 Canadian documentary film directed by Lixin Fan and produced by Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin of EyeSteelFilm. It won the Best Documentary Feature at 2009 IDFA and has been distributed by Zeitgeist Films in the US. SynopsisEvery spring, China's 130 million migrant workers travel back to their home villages for the New Year's holiday. This exodus is the world's largest human migration. Working over several years, director Lixin Fan travelled with one couple who has embarked on these annual treks for almost two decades. Like many of China's rural poor, the Zhangs left their native village of Huilong, , Guang'an District in Sichuan province and their newborn daughter to find work in Guangzhou in a garment factory for 16 years and see her only once a year during the Spring Festival. Their daughter Qin, now a restless and rebellious teenager, resents her parents' absence and longs for her own freedom away from school and her rural hometown, much to the dismay of her parents. She eventually leaves school, against the wishes of her parents, to work in the city. Developments since the filmIn a March 2010 follow-up interview, director Lixin Fan reveals that the Zhangs are still working in the factory and Qin telephoned, but did not visit, for the New Year. In September 2011, Fan said that Qin was now a vocational student in Beijing, and that while Qin's mother is back on the farm, her father still works at the factory. In January 2012, an update on the family was released:
Awards* 2009: Won Best Feature Documentary at the 22nd annual International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/canadian-documentary-wins-international-prize/article1382157/ The Globe and Mail: "Canadian documentary wins international prize"] * 2009: Won Cinmathque Qubcoise Best Quebec film award at the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montral (RIDM) * 2010: Won Best Documentary Feature Film award at Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) * 2010: Won Golden Gate Award in the Investigative Documentary Feature Category at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFiFF) * 2010: Official Selection at Sundance Film Festival * 2010: Official Selection at New Directors/New Films Festival * 2010: Won Best Documentary Feature at the RiverRun International Film Festival[http://www.riverrunfilm.com/about/awards/2010-award-winners 2010 Award Winners] - RiverRun International Film Festival * 2010: Won Grand Prix at EBS International Documentary Festival The film won the Genie Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 31st Genie Awards in 2011.Bruce Kirkland, "Incendies best ; Edges Barney's Version for top picture Genie and in total awards". 'Winnipeg Sun', March 11, 2011. Reception'Last Train Home' is certified "fresh" with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, earning the Golden Tomato award for best limited-release and best foreign film. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times picked 'Last Train Home' as one of the most outstanding works from the 2010 Sundance by characterizing it as "a beautifully shot, haunting and haunted large scale portrait." Film critic Roger Ebert praised the film for its depiction of conflict in one family as they struggle to improve their quality of life; giving the film four out of four stars. He concluded that due to the film's depiction of the effects of capitalism on the country that "[t]he rulers of China may someday regret that they distributed the works of Marx so generously." Praising 'Last Train Home' as "a documentary masterpiece," Brian Brooks of IndieWIRE wrote that "filmmaker Lixin Fan may very well be one of modern-day China's great non-fiction storytellers." Critics of IndieWIRE placed 'Last Train Home' at "top four" in its list of Top Ten Competition Films of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. 'Last Train Home' was one of the top five films nominated for the Directors Guild of America Documentary Prize, announced on January 29, 2011 at the 63rd annual DGA Awards Dinner. It lost to Charles Ferguson's "Inside Job." Lixin Fan was interviewed by Anna Maria Tremonti, host of CBC radio program "The Current", on January 19, 2011, talking about 'Last Train Home'. Release'Last Train Home' was released on American screens on September 3, 2010. See also*2009 in film *List of Canadian films of 2009 *List of documentary films about the People's Republic of China *List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregator website References | |
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