Filmmaker Xinyue Li in conversation with Jie Li, Ford Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies, Harvard College Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Harvard University.

This film is part of a three-part series presenting documentaries from China’s Caochangdi Workstation, a collective of documentary filmmakers and performance artists whose work explores memory, history, and everyday life through long-term, participatory projects.

Director’s statement: “In July 2020, I returned to my hometown, Harbin, where I had been away for six years. At the age of 24, the trajectory of my life came to a halt, and I began to re-examine how I had been carried along and shaped by the currents of life. ‘Xinyue’ (New Moon) was the name my mother gave me, inspired by the beauty she looked up to amid pain and chaos. It led me to reflect on the 1990s, the decade I was born, and to examine the eternal entanglement between hopeful aspirations and harsh realities.

This is my first film, created alongside fellow artists from the creative community of Caochangdi Workstation. In early 2021, I participated in the online Caochangdi Video Writing Workshop, and since then, I’ve communicated and collaborated with my Caochangdi peers through online theater, email groups, book clubs, workshops, and more. The material, direction, structure, and final form of this film all grew out of this process. Through this creation, I have borne witness to my 27 years of life, from which I hope to continue my work under the name ‘New Moon,’ with chapter two, three, and more.”

About the director: Xinyue Li, born in Harbin in 1996, worked in Beijing for two years after graduating from university. In 2020, she returned to Harbin and participated in the Caochangdi Workstation creative community, starting a series of writing and video creation under the name of “New Moon.”

New Moon Chapter One (Xinyue Li/New Moon, 2024, 138 min, China, in Chinese dialects w/ Chinese & English subtitles, DCP)