His work could be seen as a comment on cultural invasion. What is at stake in Zhao’s method is the search for a shared language—a language capable of reaching an audience that is familiar with only one or the other category of experience. His works could be labeled quasi-documentary, as they question the documentary format by diluting it with images from more popular media. He consciously authors his videos’ “image dumps” to signify a moment in our visual culture when an endless profusion of images is canceling out content and meaning. In the meantime, he identifies his own practice as a reconfiguration of the codes of representation that these media are making available… (read more)
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Journalist: Director Zhao, it’s my pleasure to interview you. First of all, I want to ask how you understand Prof. Cui Weiping’s conclusion of “Sisyphus’s children?” Like Sisyphus rolling the huge boulder up the hill, the petitioners also struggle to achieve an impossible mission with unflinching courage. Including yourself, over ten years shooting is also a long, persistent process.
Zhao: I like this metaphor a lot, and I’m deeply touched by it. Her conclusion is very accurate. These people’s life and mental state is exactly like what she concludes…In this film, stubbornness is a virtue. In fact I see stubbornness as human nature, but its nature is not easily perceivable in most people. I think that this nature can nurture a person. Perhaps you may never come across such a situation that reveals your stubborn nature. I also feel that this is very complicated. Personality determines a person’s overall temperament, but fate is formed by different aspects and forces. No one wants to live such a tough life, but they have no choice. Actually lots of people who come to Beijing to petition have to give up eventually because of the political situation here, as well as their own financial problems… (read more)
Zhao Liang interviewed about Petition, via dGenerate Films