Chen Junhua
Directing
Biography
Chen Junhua, a director from China, lives in Beijing now. In 2013,Chen made a short documentary called Lu Shan Ji, which won ten prizes in different international film festivals. Chen has learnt documentary from Wang Bing, and Chen is one of the cameramen of the documentary film Bitter Money, which won the best scenarist award in 73th Venice Film Festival.
Known For
In a fast growing city of East China, migrants have been arriving and living for a dream of a better life. But what they find there is little opportunities and poor living conditions that push people, even couples, into violent and oppressive relations. Xiao Min, Ling Ling and Lao Yeh are some of the characters of this bitter chronicle of today China.
Bitter Money
A once-prosperous coal mining town is now in decline, as Chinese economic policy has pivoted away from coal. Through the director’s own family, the film depicts the source of life—mined from the darkness of 800 meters underground—that has given, as well as taken away from them.
Home in the Mine
After a deadly fire in a Beijing migrant workers’ housing block in 2017, authorities launched sweeping safety inspections, forcibly evicting residents and demolishing homes. The filmmaker follows workers across urban villages, observing their livelihoods and reflecting on class realities under China’s household registration system.