A Yangtze Landscape (Changjiang) - Terra Incognita: Xu Xin, Gareth Davis and Frances-Marie Uitti

A Yangtze Landscape (Changjiang) - Terra Incognita

Chapter from Xu Xin's documentary A Yangtze Landscape which uses the Yangtze river as a contemplative metaphor for contemporary China, this black and white journey sets off from the Port of Shanghai on a filmed odyssey of thousands of kilometres to the river’s source in Qinghai/Tibet. APSA Academy member Xu Xin’s epic film passes through Nanjing, Wuhan, the massive Three Gorges Dam, and Chongqing, filming all the way to the upper Yangtze Yibin, then crossing over dry land from Yibin to the source. Experimental music and noise recorded live on scene were used in post-production, painstakingly paired to the visuals in post-production, creating an atmosphere of magical realism, contrasting with people who seem to be decorative figures right out of traditional Chinese landscale scrolls, all living alongside a river that no longer seems alive.

Directed by Xu Xin
Music by Gareth Davis and Frances - Marie Uitti

Gareth Davis - bass clarinet
Frances Marie Uitti - cello