The physical and psychological grievances of 20th century revolutionary China form the potent backbone of "Morning Sun," a stunning reflective documentary about life under the drastic social reforms of leader Mao Zedong. The film, an engaging history lesson (via the use of newsreel footage) as well as an emotional human-interest piece (through present-day interviews with those who grew up during the revolution), will certainly leave no viewer unaffected.
"Morning Sun" will be screened in the Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex at Millsaps College on Mon., April 11 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the South Carolina Arts Commission's Southern Circuit Film Series tour of independent films. Co-director Richard Gordon will attend the screening to introduce and discuss the film.
"Morning Sun" does seem to have been produced with a more informed audience in mind (though it does not exclude the novice from appreciating it), and some knowledge of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (roughly 1964 through 1976) may be helpful. Beginning in the mid-1960s, Communist Party Chairman Mao encouraged students and blue-collar workers to rise up and purge members of the ruling class, efforts aimed to secure the practice of Maoism, his own form of Communist rule, by eliminating lingering opposition. His orders, ultimately successful, resulted in significant deaths, imprisonments, economic troubles, and general chaos for the Chinese as their government was rapidly, radically altered.
The documentary excellently outlines the manner in which Mao and other influential figures influenced the minds of the masses through propaganda, such as the film "The East is Red" and the translation of the revolutionary Italian novel "The Gadfly." The interviewees display a surprising level of candor in comparing their (admittedly misled) childhood views with the realizations of their adulthood. They describe the cult-like status with which Mao was revered in a manner that is both oddly humorous and intensely chilling.
One interviewee compares the youth's adoration for Mao with contemporary fascination with musicians: "Today high school kids get hysterical over rock stars, crying and fainting … What was there to worship in Mao? An old guy in an army suit who had nothing to do with you—he couldn't even sing or dance."
What makes "Morning Sun" so superior to many other documentaries is its organization of material and consistency of presentation. Directors Geramie Barmé, Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton analyze a rather vast and tumultuous period in just under two hours, dividing the revolutionary period into several "chapters" and keeping up the alternation between interviews and archive footage. Though the film focuses more on the earlier years of the revolution and rushes the concluding events slightly, it balances the historical information and the emotional elements well. Still, there are a few occasions when the film drags, and viewers with little interest in world history and politics may find it somewhat dull.
Another slightly bothersome aspect of the picture is the filmmakers' decision to dub all of the interviews from Chinese into English rather than subtitling them, particularly unfortunate is that the female narrator injects virtually no inflection into her translations. Despite the tragedy of the interviewees' recollections, the emotion certainly present in their voices is lost. Many documentaries opt to aurally translate interviews, and it works for some, but this one would have probably been better left in its native voice with subtitles.
Still, densely assembled and loaded with emotion, "Morning Sun" is a work of rare complexity.
Not Rated
Geramie Barmé, Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton, directors
**** (out of five)
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