“Dumb Men” (2018), with Filmmaker Hu Tao

Dumb Men (Hu Tao, 2018, 86 min, China, Color, Digital)

“People in my hometown call those who are shy and untalkative ‘touxiuzi.’ Within my family, the touxiuzi gene is embodied in the members of three generations. As a touxiuzi in our family, I try to uncover and open up the real heart beating under our touxiuzi exterior, yet in the end I only open up myself. The touxiuzi in the family continue to circle in the air above the village and grow in the village’s soil.”

— Hu Tao

About The Memory Project
Wu Wenguang, a foundational figure for Chinese independent documentary film, launched The Memory Project in 2010 to document the gathering of oral histories from the rural survivors of China’s Great Famine (1958-1961). Wu and two of his collaborators will be on campus for three nights of film screenings and one night of performance.

Presented by Duke University Libraries; co-sponsored by the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute (APSI), the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), the Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts (MFA|EDA), and the Center for Documentary Studies.