Iowa Public Television

Beijing Taxi

Beijing Taxi

BEIJING TAXI is a feature-length documentary that vividly portrays the ancient capital of China undergoing a profound transformation. The intimate lives of three taxi drivers are seen through a humanistic lens as they navigate a quickly morphing city, confronting modern issues and changing values. The three protagonists radiate a warm sense of humanity despite the struggles that each faces in adapting to new realities of life in the modern city. With stunning imagery of Beijing and a contemporary score rich in atmosphere, BEIJING TAXI communicates a visceral sense of the common citizens? persistent attempts to grasp the elusive. The 2008 Summer Olympic Games serve as the backdrop for BEIJING TAXI's story, a coming out party for a rising nation and a metaphor for Chinese society and its struggles to reconcile enormous contradictions while adjusting to a new capitalist system that can seem foreign to some in the Communist-ruled and educated society. Candid and perceptive in its filming approach and highly cinematic and moody in style, BEIJING TAXI takes us on a lyrical journey through fragments of a society riding the bumpy roads to modernization. Though its destination unknown, the drivers continue to forge ahead. Mandarin w/English subtitles 2010 China/USA A Three Waters Production World Premiere - SXSW 2010 Best Feature Documentary - Sidewalk Film Festival 2010 Best Director - Duke City Docfest 2010 Honorable Mention Cinematography in Documentary - Oxford Film Festival 2011 Opening Night Film - Martha's Vineyard Film Festival 2010 [78 minutes]

This episode has not aired in the past few months on Iowa Public Television.