Abstract:

"From Xiuwen, in the heart of the Chinese province of Sichuan, Mr. Wu, Mr. Shen, and Mrs. Li -- a team of itinerant film projectionists -- travel through the countryside showing monthly film programs to peasants in twenty neighboring villages, carrying film reels, projectors, and screens on bicycles and on their backs. Unlike the early communist days, when traveling cinema was employed to spread propaganda through rural China, educational films ('The Growing of Oranges') may now share a bill with current Kung Fu hits ('The Revenge of Mt. Tai Sham'), although the events may still be used to remind citizens of Chinese laws; for instance, a slide before the motion pictures proclaims that 'It is forbidden to use electricity for fish and rat trapping.' This lyrical documentary accompanies these guardians of the 'Electric Shadows' -- the Chinese name for cinema -- from village to village as it explores their devotion to a profession threatened by the arrival of television and Chinese economic reforms."