在北京西北部，隨著「三山五園」相關政策的推進，正逐步影響著特定區域的空間形態與使用方式。一些城中村在規劃與整治過程中，進入了調整與更新的階段。隨著環境的變化，部分居民經歷搬遷，原有的生活痕跡也在逐漸轉變。

在此過程中，現場遺留下來的物件，成為觀察這一變動的重要線索。本片以行為藝術的方式進行介入，對這些被遺留的日常物品進行收集與整理，並以特定的方法加以保存與呈現。這些物件不被重新詮釋，而是作為時間與使用痕跡的載體，被保留下來。

透過對空間變化與物件存留狀態的記錄，本片嘗試提供一種觀看城市更新過程的視角，呈現人在其中的流動，以及物與環境之間的關係。

Misty Garden (2026)

In the northwest of Beijing, the implementation of policies related to the “Three Hills and Five Gardens” is gradually influencing the spatial structure and usage of certain areas. Some urban villages, undergoing planning and renovation, are entering a phase of transition. As the environment changes, parts of the population relocate, and traces of everyday life begin to shift accordingly.

Within this process, objects left behind on site become important clues for observing these transformations. This film engages through a form of performance-based artistic intervention, collecting and organizing these abandoned everyday items, and preserving them through specific methods of presentation. Rather than reinterpreting them, these objects are retained as carriers of time and use.

By documenting spatial change and the conditions of what remains, the film attempts to offer a perspective on urban transformation, reflecting the movement of people and the relationship between objects and their environments.

Genres: Documentary

Runtime: 94 mins

Language: Mandarin

Director: ZHOU Chengzhou / WANG Xin

Producer: ZHOU Chengzhou / WANG XIn

Witer: ZHOU Chengzhou

Cinematographer: WANG Xin / LIU Junli / ZHOU Chengzhou / WANG Guoqing

Performer: ZHOU Chengzhou

Editor: ZHOU Chengzhou

Country of Origin： Netherlands

导演阐述

《翻山越園》導演闡述

《翻山越園》的拍攝始於2022年疫情期間，並於2026年完成全部拍攝與後期製作。這四年的時間跨度，不只是作品形成的過程，也構成了影片本身的一部分。疫情所帶來的封閉、停滯與城市節奏的改變，使我開始重新思考：人在城市更新與空間變化之中，究竟留下了什麼，又失去了什麼。

影片聚焦於北京西北部「三山五園」相關政策推進下的空間變化。隨著城市規劃與整治的展開，一些城中村逐漸進入調整與更新階段。原有的生活空間被重新定義，部分居民在搬遷中離開，而那些曾經屬於日常生活的痕跡，也隨之慢慢消失。對我而言，真正值得被注視的，並不只是空間的消失本身，而是那些被遺留下來的物件——它們像是時間暫時停留後留下的證據。

因此，本片以行為藝術的方式介入現場。我嘗試對遺留於空間中的日常物品進行收集、整理與保存，並透過特定的方式重新呈現它們。這些物件並非被賦予新的象徵意義，也不是作為懷舊的展覽材料存在，而是作為時間與使用痕跡的載體被保留下來。它們自身已經攜帶著人的氣息、生活的重量，以及空間變遷留下的沉默信息。

在創作方法上，我希望突破傳統紀錄片單一的觀看方式。影片並不只是對現實進行被動記錄，而是試圖讓影像主動進入現場，讓行為藝術與紀錄片語言彼此交錯。這種介入既保留了紀錄片對真實的敏感，也讓作品獲得了一種更接近身體經驗與精神感知的表達方式。我希望觀眾在觀看時，不只是看到城市更新的表面過程，而能感受到人在其中的流動、停留與消失。

同時，影片也嘗試運用AI技術完成一些過去無法實現的鏡頭。AI在本片中並非作為單純的技術展示，而是一種新的影像方法。它幫助我重新建構那些難以被攝影機直接捕捉的感受，例如記憶的斷裂、空間消失後殘留的情緒，以及現實與時間交疊的狀態。透過AI生成與真實影像的結合，影片得以進一步延伸紀錄片的邊界，使那些不可見、不可重現的部分，獲得新的視覺形式。

《翻山越園》並不試圖對城市更新做出結論，也不提供明確立場。它更像是一種觀看與保存的行動：透過對空間、物件與人的持續凝視，去記錄一段正在消失的時間。對我而言，這部作品不只是一次紀錄片創作，更是一種關於記憶、現場與城市關係的影像實驗。

Director’s Statement
Misty Garden(2026)

The filming of Misty Garden began during the pandemic in 2022 and was completed in 2026 through the final stages of post-production. The four-year span is not only the production period of the film, but also an integral part of the work itself. The atmosphere of isolation, suspension, and shifting urban rhythms brought by the pandemic led me to reconsider what remains—and what disappears—within processes of urban transformation.

The film focuses on the northwestern area of Beijing, where policies related to the “Three Hills and Five Gardens” initiative have gradually reshaped the spatial structure and usage of specific regions. As urban planning and redevelopment advanced, several urban villages entered phases of adjustment and renewal. Residents were relocated, former living spaces redefined, and traces of everyday life slowly faded away. For me, what deserves attention is not only the disappearance of space itself, but also the objects left behind—objects that remain like fragments of suspended time.

Through the methodology of performance art, the film intervenes directly within these changing sites. I collected, organized, and preserved abandoned everyday objects found within the spaces undergoing transformation, presenting them through specific acts and gestures. These objects are not reinterpreted symbolically, nor are they displayed as nostalgic artifacts. Instead, they are preserved as carriers of time and traces of use. They already contain the presence of people, the weight of daily life, and the silent evidence of spatial change.

Formally, I wanted to move beyond the conventional language of documentary filmmaking. Rather than functioning solely as passive observation, the film attempts to actively enter the reality it records, allowing performance art and documentary practice to intersect. This approach maintains documentary’s sensitivity to reality while opening a more experiential and psychological dimension of expression. I hope the audience does not simply observe the visible process of urban redevelopment, but also senses the movement, displacement, and disappearance of people within it.

At the same time, the film experiments with AI technology to realize images and sequences that would have previously been impossible to create. In this work, AI is not used as a technological spectacle, but as a new cinematic language. It allows the reconstruction of fragmented memories, invisible emotional states, and the overlapping relationship between time and space—elements that traditional cameras alone often cannot capture directly. By combining AI-generated imagery with documentary footage, the film seeks to expand the boundaries of documentary itself, giving visual form to what is otherwise unrecordable or absent.

Across the Hills and Gardens does not attempt to provide conclusions about urban renewal, nor does it propose a singular position. Instead, it functions as an act of observation and preservation: a sustained gaze upon spaces, objects, and human traces during a moment of disappearance. For me, this work is not only a documentary film, but also an experiment in image-making—one that reflects on memory, presence, and the evolving relationship between people and the city.

Trailer：

Poster

Director ZHOU Chengzhou

Producer LI Yujun

Main person SHAMA Wusan, SHAMA Wuniu, WANG Ying, SHAMA Jiaqiang, SHAMA Wujia

Cinematographer/Editor ZHOU Chengzhou

Runtime: 24m 57s

IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt38349185

Director Statement

In this documentary, the central recurring image is a dead pig drifting along a flowing river. In Chinese culture, pigs symbolize wealth; a dead pig, rotting on the water’s surface, evokes the loss of once-cherished wealth, faith, and hope. Though her father’s love has faded into the past, the water continues to flow—embodying the resilience of life, the passage of time, and an unstoppable vitality. Like the river itself, the little girl carries on with an unyielding, vibrant spirit.

The film follows a young Yi ethnic girl and her friends in Xide County, a remote mountainous area in western Sichuan. In the post-pandemic era, their world has not stood still. Above the ground, the water veins still run; life continues to search for a way forward.

Through the girls’ daily games, moments of confusion, and shared dreams, we witness a small yet unyielding force of life. The dead pig will inevitably decay, but the water — gentle yet steadfast — never stops flowing.

This is a story about loss and continuation, and a record of how children in the marginalized mountain regions of China continue to grow.

Trailer 

Producer Yanna Wu/Zhou Chengzhou

Writer Cong Cong /Da Fan /Li Dapeng /Nai Youmi /Sa Mao /Shi Ya /Xue Zhu /Yu Xi /You Guang /Zhang Yuezhong /zoe /Zhou Chengzhou

Star Cong Cong Da Fan Li Dapeng Nai Youmi Sa Mao Shi Ya Xue Zhu Yu Xi You Guang Zhang Yuezhong zoe

Cinematographer Zhou Chengzhou

Editor Zhou Chengzhou

Effects production Cong Cong

Mins:3h 30mins  210mins

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27831400/

Trailer 

Storyline

The number of women choosing to live independently in China has increased significantly in recent years, reflecting the changing social dynamics and evolving gender roles. Rapid urbanisation and rapid economic development in China have contributed to a shift in gender roles, leading to an increase in the number of women living alone. Living alone also represents a form of empowerment and autonomy.

This film tells the stories of eleven ordinary women living alone, from different parts of China, with different personalities and different cultural identities, filmed before the end of the epidemic in China (before November 2022), each of whom also participated in the film as co-writers, telling their own stories in their own languages.

They are like beautiful irises blooming in the land of China.

Director/Writer: Zhou Chengzhou

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21211934/

In most parts of China, some inanimate devices make a kind of low roar, like a noise, to attract people’s attention.

The inorganic objects themselves cannot make a sound, the director creates a relationship, a connection with the inorganic objects through himself, an organic object, and the director makes those inorganic objects make their own sound through this particular way.

Interview

Director/Writer: Zhou Chengzhou

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjJpEK3yIfA

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19409272

This is adapted from a true story that happened in China. It tells the story of a woman living alone in the contemporary context of China. The protagonist is Xiaomei. She came to the big city of Beijing alone from her hometown and worked and lived in her own unique and free way. She encountered many unexpected contradictions and conflicts in the process of work and life.

This film presents the story of a real woman living alone. Where is her last way? What is her real living state like? I hope that through this film, people can see the living conditions of those minority women from different angles, and try to use the way of film to explore the real situation and real mentality of Chinese women in the contemporary context of Chinese society.

Part of the film is in the form of real record, and the other part is presented in the form of real story adaptation.

In China, it was only around 2000 that the gender perspective was incorporated into all kinds of sociological research. The director tries to do some free discussion through the prominent social sensitive issues of women in the film, such as employment, women’s rights and freedom, marriage and family. This is a true story. This woman is one of the awakening of self-consciousness of a large number of Chinese women. She is one of the new free women. She hopes to realize the desire of de sexualization through economic independence and ideological independence. It is also a struggle against the traditional concept of women, but her work is not recognized by the society, but also a marginal work. But to fight in her way and work in her way to survive, the director also wants to explain from some less well-known angles that women present the real living state of a few women in the contemporary context of China with their work content and life attitude, but often women still need a long way to obtain relative equality in society, In the film, there are too many unequal attitudes of the public towards women’s rights and freedom. The director tries to convey the view of women’s freedom in this way. The protagonist actively pursues women’s own independence and the desire to follow their own choices in life.

Star: Liu Junli, Li Yuan, Chen Chen, Wangguoqing, Zhang Run, Gao Yunzi, Wang Yike, Zhao Yuanjie, Zhou Chengzhou, Hu Danya

Director/Writer: Zhou Chengzhou

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/505527407

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14012284/

This is the second part of Conscious Desire Trilogy series. The first film is called Sub-subconscious. It mainly expresses people’s appearance and inner world in the form of subconsciousness.

The second part is Called Unreflex Land, which means that it is a place without reflection, including physical reflection and human consciousness reflection. It’s like being driven forward by some kind of consciousness. Zhou Chengzhou, who tries to explore the New-Humanity and New-Possibility of the unknown space through a channel without reflection in his heart.

When the master wakes up, he finds that he is in a strange space, which is full of all kinds of sounds. He didn’t know how he got to this place. He keeps running, and then a series of mysterious events happen in this space, which makes him unable to distinguish between nothingness and reality…

Trailer: https://youtu.be/TofnJqghG5Q

Movie: https://www.nowness.asia/story/sub-subconscious

31min / drama

The movie is divided into five parts, each part expresses the subconscious in different forms. It is mainly in the form of subconscious to show people’s appearance and inner world. In reality, it is difficult to have such a form. The film also combines some actual cases. Only in the brain, perhaps in mental illness, can it take shape and convey different personalities and ideologies of different people.

These ideologies take place in cities, rural areas and developed areas. These estrangements are often hidden. They either hide passively or actively. The alienated subconscious is hidden in those unknown corners, often unknown, and these subconscious are not willing to be opened by the general form. Sometimes these ideologies seem to be very normal, even like normal people, but these ideologies have fears and splits that normal people cannot feel. These psychological activities are usually related to physiological factors, mental factors and pathological factors.

Maybe one day the film will help these alienated people return to their real normal state in some gentle and unique way