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Last train home /

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Every spring, China's cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year's holiday. This mass exodus is the world's largest human migration--an epic spectacle that reveals a country tragically caught between its rural past and...

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Bibliographic Details
Corporate Authors: Telefilm Canada, Eyesteelfilm (Firm), Independent Television Service, Zeitgeist Films
Other Authors: Fan, Lixin (Director), Aung-Thwin, Mila, Cross, Daniel, Zhang, Changhua, Chen, Suqin, Zhang, Qin, Zhang, Yang, Tang, Tingsui
Format: Video DVD
Language:Chinese
Language Notes:In Mandarin and Sichuan dialect with English subtitles.
Published: [United States?] : Zeitgeist Video, 2009.
Edition:Educational ed.
Subjects:
Documentary films.
Nonfiction films.
Chinese > Family relationships.
Parent and child > China.
Children of working parents > China.
Work and family > China.
Clothing workers > China.
Railroads > China > Passenger traffic.
Migrant labor > China.
China > Social conditions > 2000-
Motion pictures > Canada.
Mandarin dialect films.
Description
Summary:Every spring, China's cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year's holiday. This mass exodus is the world's largest human migration--an epic spectacle that reveals a country tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future. Director Lixin Fan draws us into the fractured lives of a single migrant family caught up in this desperate annual migration. Sixteen years ago, the Zhangs abandoned their young children to find work in the city, consoled by the hope that their wages would lift their children into a better life. But in a bitter irony, the Zhangs' hopes for the future are undone by their very absence. Qin, the daughter they left behind, has grown into adolescence crippled by a sense of abandonment. In an act of teenage rebellion, she drops out of school. She too will become a garment factory worker. The decision is a heartbreaking blow for the parents. Last Train Home follows the Zhangs' attempts to change their daughter's course and repair their ruptured family.
Item Description:This disc is a recorded DVD and may not play on all DVD players or drives.
Originally produced in 2009.
Videorecording.
Physical Description:1 videodisc (87 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in.
Format:DVD-R.
Awards:Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival ; Riverrun Film Festival ; IDFA ; San Francisco International Film Festival.
Production Credits:Director of photography, Lixin Fan ; editing, Lixin Fan, Mary Stephen ; music, Olivier Alary.