Documetary on the plight of Chinese miners

Source: SCMP (4/28/20)
‘It’s better than dying of hunger’: plight of Chinese miners with deadly lung disease exposed in new documentary
Miners, the Horsekeeper and Pneumoconiosis tells the story of an iron ore miner in Hunan, central China, dying of lung disease after toiling in an illegal mine. The film can only be seen at private screenings, says director Jiang Ningxie, because he won’t submit it to censors. Film censorship is too strict, he says.
By Elaine Yau in Beijing

Chinese iron ore miner Zhao Pinfeng, who died from pneumoconiosis at home in Hunan province, China, is one of the subjects of new documentary Miners, the Horsekeeper and Pneumoconiosis.

Chinese iron ore miner Zhao Pinfeng, who died from pneumoconiosis at home in Hunan province, China, is one of the subjects of new documentary Miners, the Horsekeeper and Pneumoconiosis.

From the age of 15, Zhao Pinfeng worked for two decades as an iron ore miner in a remote, mountainous area of Hunan province in central China.

Several years ago Zhao, who by then had two children and whose wife is mentally challenged, was diagnosed with pneumoconiosis, a fatal lung disease. He lost the ability to work and had to breathe through a ventilator. On one fateful night in 2018, an electricity outage at his village stopped his ventilator. He died the next day.

Zhao’s final days were recorded for a documentary feature, Miners, the Horsekeeper and Pneumoconiosis. Directed by Jiang Nengjie, the 81-minute film revolves around Hunan villagers who relied on the illegal mines for a living before they were closed down by the government. They include porters who transport the mine explosives and iron shards, and miners like Zhao.

The film shows how the use of illegal explosives and mining without protective gear damaged the health of villagers, with many of them contracting pneumoconiosis.

Zhao (right) and his family. The iron ore miner died of the fatal lung disease pneumoconiosis in 2018.

Zhao (right) and his family. The iron ore miner died of the fatal lung disease pneumoconiosis in 2018.

The film, which Jiang started making in 2010, has scored 8.6 out of 10 on Douban, China’s leading film review site. The 35-year-old director attracted much media attention recently for distributing the film privately for free viewing by sending download links to friends, who then spread it around.

He tells the Post he distributed the film privately because he did not send it to China’s censors for approval. “We can’t show it for a fee as it is illegally published work,” he says.

“China’s film censorship regime is too strict. Independent documentaries like mine touch on social problems in a critical way. If we send it to the censors, we need to edit out many parts. I would feel humiliated by the edits as the [amended] version would no longer be my work.”

Jiang, who supports his filmmaking by making videos of weddings and commercial events, says that in the past he could put films on online video sites, but public distribution of them has become increasingly difficult in China over the past few years.

“I still want more people to view [my film], so since late March I encouraged my friends and other filmmakers to spread it around,” he says.

Jiang Nengjie is the director of Miners, the Horsekeeper and Pneumoconiosis. Photo: Courtesy Jiang Nengjie

Jiang Nengjie is the director of Miners, the Horsekeeper and Pneumoconiosis. Photo: Courtesy Jiang Nengjie

Jiang Meilin, a porter portrayed in the film, is his father. He stopped working as a miner after contracting tuberculosis. In 1992, when Jiang Nengjie was seven years old, his grandfather died in a mine accident. Two of his uncles also suffer from pneumoconiosis. A boss of a small mine in the film is his cousin. Zhao’s village is also next to documentary director Jiang’s.

Jiang says the personal subject matter made him sad when he was editing the film. “I spent nearly a decade making it. During editing, I needed to stop sometimes to take a break or smoke or do other things.”

Miners, the Horsekeeper and Pneumoconiosis director Jiang (far left) and Zhao (second right) with his family.

Miners, the Horsekeeper and Pneumoconiosis director Jiang (far left) and Zhao (second right) with his family.

The filmmaker hopes to make people in China more aware of the plight of pneumoconiosis sufferers in the country, who number six million.

“Although the mines are illegal, the villagers don’t have many other career choices,” he says. “Doing that is better than dying of hunger. They can also take care of their children working locally instead of leaving for urban areas for work.

“They make big sacrifices for the development of China, with some paying with their lives. Government health insurance only covers a small part of the cost of their medical treatment. Take Zhao’s family. The father lost his ability to work. His daughter planned to stop her education at primary six as the family ran out of money. We eventually found a charity to subsidise her tuition fees.”

He explains that most of the [illegal] mine bosses are local villagers who don’t make money from mining. For this reason, they don’t have money to pay compensation to their workers.

The documentary shows that Zhao and his fellow miners all made huge sacrifices for the development of China.

The documentary shows that Zhao and his fellow miners all made huge sacrifices for the development of China.

Jiang adds: “Villagers are kind people. They don’t even have the sense to fight for their rights. They don’t know the labour law. [Even if they knew], taking their issue to the government to fight for their rights is very difficult [in China].”

After graduating from Hunan Normal University with a design degree in 2008, Jiang went to live with a cousin in Dongguan, a town in Guangdong, southern China, where he worked as a cashier in a supermarket to save money to buy a video camera for making documentaries.

His first documentary, The Road, about children left behind in rural areas by their parents who work in urban areas, mostly in factories, was released in 2009. The plight of those children is another topic that is personal to him. When Jiang was a child, his parents left him behind in their Hunan village when they went to find work in Guangdong province.

Jiang distributed the documentary privately, as he did not want China’s censors to make changes to it. Photo: Courtesy Jiang Nengjie

Jiang distributed the documentary privately, as he did not want China’s censors to make changes to it. Photo: Courtesy Jiang Nengjie

In spite of the resonance of his new film’s gritty subject matter among the socially conscious in China, Jiang says he will not enter it in foreign film festivals, as he is afraid he will get into trouble in China.

Many people have accused him of taking foreign funding to make a film that attacks the Chinese government, he says. “I didn’t think of getting more foreign audiences to see it. The film is on YouTube. But it’s people who viewed it that put it there, not me.

“We launched crowdfunding for the project before. Saying I didn’t apply for a filmmaking permit, local officials came to our office to investigate us. Our landlord was so scared that he asked us to move out of our office,” Jiang recalls.

The filmmaker is working on another documentary, Love is Love, which records the struggles and discrimination faced by the LGBT community in China. The project has received funding from a sexual-minority social organisation.

Zhao (right) and his family before his death in 2018.

Zhao (right) and his family before his death in 2018.

“It’s in post-production already,” says Jiang. “The film was set in the cities. I won’t send this film to the censors either. So it will also be distributed [privately].”

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