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▲poster of "hot years".

the premiere of the documentary film "hot years". photo provided by the interviewed unit

shenzhen news network, september 20, 2024 (shenzhen evening news reporter guo yuli ma jiali) on september 19, the documentary film "hot years" held its premiere at the guangzhou tower. the film's producers, main creative team, model workers and craftsmen, and employee representatives attended the premiere and watched the film.

"hot years" is guided by the guangdong federation of trade unions and the publicity department of the shenzhen municipal party committee, initiated by the shenzhen federation of trade unions, and produced by the shenzhen modern light music orchestra. it is a documentary that reflects the struggle and development of ordinary workers in shenzhen. the film follows the stories of 8 groups of shenzhen worker representatives, telling how the fate of ordinary people is closely connected with the city of shenzhen from the past to the present, and through these people and events, it shows the specific memory of the times, the industry ecology, and the spiritual outlook, answering the question "why is shenzhen shenzhen" from a point to a whole, and seeing the details from the details.

"hot years" will be released nationwide soon, and will be screened in advance from now on. the film has been selected for the guangdong excellent film promotion conference hosted by the guangdong provincial film bureau, and has won the china (guangzhou) international documentary golden cotton competition unit re-evaluation finalist award, the china documentary academy award finalist award, and was invited to participate in the 10th golden cotton film festival in 2024.

recording "ordinary people, extraordinary things"

in 2021, the shenzhen federation of trade unions created the film brand "kung fu". in 2022, it further established the "kung fu" documentary series brand. under the name of "kung fu", it focused on the people and events in "shenzhen's passionate years and the hot life of employees". "hot years" is the beginning of this documentary brand.

as the sponsor of the film, the shenzhen federation of trade unions said that shenzhen is a city built by strugglers, and the majority of employees have made great achievements in their posts and written moving stories of struggle. as the "mother family" of the majority of employees, the shenzhen federation of trade unions chose to use the form of documentary films to track and record the extraordinary life of ordinary people in shenzhen. through the three dimensions of "shenzhen employees", "shenzhen people" and "shenzhen", the "passionate years and hot years" are used as the documentary story line to show the city style of shenzhen. with the pattern of a feature film, it integrates the authenticity, vividness and appeal of documentaries to achieve emotional resonance with the employee audience.

the shenzhen federation of trade unions stated that the "kung fu" documentary series project will launch a documentary film shooting plan that is "based on the present and oriented to the future", and gradually establish a video archive to record the construction of the pilot demonstration zone. it is understood that the second film in the "kung fu" series, which is being prepared for filming, is intended to be positioned as the "new chapter of the era" of high-quality development in the lead, and to record a shenzhen that always maintains its ideals, is forever young, and never stops its struggle through documentary films.

"their stories, your and my lives"

in order to make the film's protagonist more representative of the employees, the film's creative team visited and surveyed more than 100 people, and finally selected 8 characters as the film's protagonists, and followed them for two years.

in the end, the creative team divided the film into four chapters: chapter 1, "landscapes in the distance", depicts the double-sided life of a programmer in a large company who tells talk shows in his spare time, and how a product manager of a technology company designs robots that better serve humanity; chapter 2, "summer journey", focuses the camera on a new group of socialized trade union workers who have arrived at the grassroots trade union federation, and records how they integrate with the workers and solve their problems; chapter 3, "the next stop: turning things around", tells how grassroots employees integrate into the city through personal efforts, and how "left-behind children" reunite with their families in the summer camp sponsored by the trade union; chapter 4, "the 18th carriage", follows the first batch of "migrant girls" who came to shenzhen and the great craftsman lu jianxin, and counts every inch of the road shenzhen has traveled.

each chapter is connected by a poem written by a shenzhen worker poet, which fully presents the spiritual outlook and industry ecology of workers from all walks of life in shenzhen. through the narrative perspective of "ordinary people and extraordinary things", the film builds an emotional bond and identity between the city and each generation of strugglers, making the spirit of model workers, the spirit of labor, and the spirit of craftsmanship run through the entire film.

the film's director, wang shaohan, is a young director. he explained the original intention of the creative team: "shenzhen is a young city. on this fast-moving city train, we really want to know how the people who support this train to move forward work and live. therefore, we turned the camera to these ordinary faces in different industries. behind the camera, we feel their stories, joys and sorrows, and what is finally presented on the big screen are vivid individual experiences and moments of life. just like what we wrote on our promotional poster: their stories, your and my life."

the "amateur" protagonist tells about his struggle in shenzhen

during the movie, the story of the film's "amateur" protagonist moved the audience.

lu jianxin is a national model worker and national moral model. he is known as the "first person to build skyscrapers in china" and has participated in the construction of four landmark buildings in shenzhen. now at the age of 60, he is still working day and night on the construction front. looking back on the development of shenzhen, he said with emotion: "shenzhen was built by thousands of ordinary people like me."

shao shufang, a front-line worker and young mother, successfully obtained a bachelor's degree from the shenzhen federation of trade unions' education assistance project "dream plan" in march 2024. while accompanying and educating her children, she plans to pursue a teacher's qualification certificate or acquire new skills. in the film, her "pioneering spirit" is the epitome of countless hard-working people in shenzhen.

shi wenbo, zhang haiquan, jiang yiping and others are a group of young people who graduated from universities and came to the grassroots to become socialized trade union workers. the film records the process of them coming to the factory to eat, live and work with the workers, gradually integrating into the workers and understanding the work of grassroots trade unions.

director wang shaohan said: "we are shooting a documentary film that truly belongs to shenzhen people. the characters selected in the film seem ordinary but are actually extraordinary. they work and live in shenzhen. they are the builders of shenzhen and witnesses of the city's rapid development. this is their 'hot years' and also shenzhen's 'hot years'."

"each of the leading actors in the film is very representative, not only reflecting their personal professional characteristics, but also the subject matter fits the aesthetics and preferences of young audiences." wang min, a teacher at south china agricultural university, said after watching the film that the film is both down-to-earth and sublimated, with both laughter and tears. "it makes people feel that shenzhen is a place where dreams can take root and blossom."