People's Republic of Desire was well-received in its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the Documentary Feature Competition. The film follows the lives of a young male comedian and a young female singer who have become stars in China's world of live streaming where people are making immense amounts of money by marketing their often-meagre talents in ways that get thousands of fans to send them gifts and pay money to vote for them in competitions. It is a bizarre pay-to-play form of online American Idol competition. It is kind of like a type of mostly not sexual prostitution where people are selling dreams and fantasies to those who are willing to pay. Wealthy patrons often pay thousands of dollars to support them while poor people pay small amounts to watch as they yearn to connect to their favorite star's fame and celebrity. They hope for some glimmer of their reflected glory. The film also follows one of the migrant workers as he obsessively watches his favorite performer. The film is beautifully made and edited with excellent animated displays of the performers screenshots and interactions. This film implies that life in China is becoming more and more virtual as lots of lonely people turn online in search of human connection in a world that is increasingly-driven almost solely by a dehumanizing search for monetary gain. Both the performers and viewers seem desperately lonely and isolated. Virtual reality seems to be triumphing over, well, actual reality. The obsession with celebrity seems reflective of a deeply unhealthy society, but then, again, as an American how can I really criticize? Our idiotic country elected an incompetent narcissistic reality TV star as our President.
People's Republic of Desire
2018
Documentary
Plot summary
As an entire generation has come of age on social media, virtual relationships are slowly replacing real-life human connections. And China has taken it to an extreme. Here, live streaming has become the most popular online entertainment for hundreds of millions. People's Republic of Desire provides a vérité journey into this digital universe, where young performers earn as much as US$150,000 a month singing, dancing or doing talk shows to live, interactive audiences of tens of thousands. Their fans include China's super rich, who each night lavish virtual gifts on their favorite performers (40% of the money paid for these gifts go to the performers),and the dirt poor, many of them migrant workers in urban areas searching for a cheap way to be entertained, to feel connected. The film follows three young characters - a singer, a comedian, and a migrant worker - as they search for fame, fortune and human connection in live streaming. We also meet their families, those managing the online talents, and those with money who control the fate of these talents, behind the scenes much like the Wizard of Oz. The story culminates in the bizarre annual online idol competition, in which the rich can buy unlimited amount of votes for their favorite performers. There our characters realize that money alone pulls the strings in this virtual universe, and human connection and personal happiness remain as illusive online as-perhaps even more so than- in our real and broken world.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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A Beautiful Documentary about the bizarre phenomenon of Chinese Live Streaming
Together Alone - How a Country of Over 1 Billion Finds Community Online, with Cash
There are few documentaries about China that immerse the viewer without judgement. Hao Wu's second film, detailing the online world of live streaming where amateur stars make millions, fans spend their hard earned money giving virtual gifts, and the mega rich pick the winners, is at times touching, sad, and provocative.
Live streamers, like movie stars and performers anywhere in the world, struggle off stage with self doubt and the pressures of keeping their fans engaged (and paying). With footage of their day-to-day frustrations, Hao Wu drops the veneer of fame and reveals the raw, and often times emotional weight of the strivers, the viewers, and those who have "made it." Happiness eludes them all.
As commentary, without the usual heavy dose of preaching, "The People's Republic of Desire" opens up a world most outside of China will never see. As any great documentary does (the film won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize),that view is honest and engaging throughout. For a generation that spends most of its waking life online their present-day obsession has quickly spread to the U.S., South Korea and beyond.
Definitely worth seeing when it makes its week-long run in NYC and LA this November.