Dream Walking

Chinese Artists Living in Poverty

This film follows four artists living on the margins of society whose passionate discussions belie their stark and impoverished living conditions. The subjects are performance artist Li Wake, painters Wang Yongping and Ding Defu, and poet Motou Beibei, who is hailed online as a genius despite working as a security guard.

Overcome by ennui, and lost in the uncertainties of their everyday lives and their artistic identities, the artists express certain hopelessness. Through grainy black-and-white footage, precision close-ups, and an editing method of joining incongruous footage that evinces an atmosphere of desperation, the sense of "nothing at all happened" finds visual expression in DREAM WALKING.

Winner at the Cinema du Reel Festival.

"DREAM WALKING takes a close look at the lives and actions of a marginal group and conveys the struggles of bottom-rung artists with great veracity and impact." - Ai Weiwei