天安门

Part 1: The Old City, 56 min.
Part 2: Residences, 51 min.

Introduced by Ian Johnson. Followed by a talk with Shi Jian 时间 and Chen Jue 陈爵.

Eight-part documentary by China Central Television (CCTV) filmed in the late 1980s with a planned air date of National Day, October 1, 1989. Canceled after the June 4th Tiananmen crackdown, co-directors Shi Jian and Chen Jue completed the films independently, but their efforts to screen it were blocked because of the film's human-scale history and pluralism challenges state-led triumphalism. Parts 1 and 2 discuss survivors of the imperial era and its erasure by the state; and everyday survival in China's phase of capitalist-style reform.

Ian Johnson, founder, China Unofficial Archives. Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has written three books on China, including Sparks: China's Unofficial Historians and The Battle for the Future. He  is currently pursuing a PhD in Sinology at Leipzig University.

Shi Jian (时间) is a documentary filmmaker, editor, and producer who worked for decades within state television, while repeatedly testing its limits. After co-directing works such as Tiananmen (1991) and I Have Graduated, he returned to independent filmmaking following his retirement in 2021, most recently completing My Grandfather Liu Wencai (2023).

Chen Jue ( 陈爵) spent his career working at China Central Television (CCTV), where he directed documentaries that explored social change during the reform era. From environmental damage to education, migration, and daily work, his films show how political and economic shifts shape ordinary lives in China, sometimes in ways that proved difficult to broadcast.