Beijing Besieged by Waste
Plastics & Pollution
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1h 15m
Directed by Wang Jiuliang • Documentary • 2011 • 72 minutes
Photographer Wang Jiu-liang travels to more than 500 landfills, fearlessly documenting Beijing's unholy cycle of consumption through poignant observational visits with the scavengers who live and work in the dumps.
While China's economic ascent commands global attention, less light has been shed upon the monumental problem of waste spawned by a burgeoning population, booming industry, and insatiable urban growth.
Award-winning photographer Wang Jiuliang focuses his lens upon the grim spectacle of waste, excrement, detritus, and rubble unceremoniously piled upon the land surrounding the China's Olympic city, capital, and megalopolis, Beijing.
"Wang Jiuliang was the first to expose the city's little-known Seventh Ring Zone garbage dumps."—Liu Jingsong, TIME Magazine
"After three years of filming—and 9,300 miles on his motorbike—[director Wang Jiuliang] marked on Google maps all the dumps he found. At the end, he produced 'Beijing Besieged by Waste.' Before [the film's release], few Chinese thought about where the waste went. The scenes of people and sheep grazing through the piles of garbage, and of trucks apparently dumping whatever they like with no authorities in sight, were a shock."—The New York Times
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