Nostalgia: A documentary film about Shanghai

We first learned from this report about the documentary film entitled Nostalgia (乡愁) by the filmmaker Shu Haolun（舒浩仑). The 70-minute film is an ode to the rapidly disappearing longtang and shikumen culture that the 34-year-old Shanghai native grew up in. Says the report:

Much of the film follows Shu's own family, who first moved to the "Da Zhongli" complex from the countryside in the 1935. His grandmother, who had just married, was 16 at the time.

"My father loved the film. He was born in the house in 1936 and my parents lived with my grandparents but, according to the party, my grandfather was a capitalist, so his room, and art, was confiscated during the Cultural Revolution," said Shu.

The audience at the film's first screening loved it too, said Shu, and many of them cried. Although it won't reach the cinemas, there will be a number of public screenings at independent venues and Shu plans to release 5,000 DVDs for sale at around 20 yuan ($2.50) each.

We’re not sure where the next screening will be. The only screening information we saw was here (in Chinese), where it says that it showed once on June 25, and that this occasion was the closest to a “premiere” for this seemingly underground documentary. The best place for information on the film and the filmmaker is, naturally, Shu’s blog, where you can find a transcript of the dialogue between the filmmaker and other guests during that first screening, as well as thoughts on the film from other people. In the meantime, you can view this trailer (also shown above). Shanghaiist is going to try to contact the filmmaker/producers and to see if we can get a copy of the film.

Photo from Shu Haolun's blog.