South to North Cine-Concert

The South-North Water Transfer Project is a giant Chinese endeavor that aims to divert 200 billion liters of water a year from the south of China to industrial areas in the north. The project has been going for several decades now, and it has attracted much criticism for its waste of water and other raw materials, the pollution it causes and the fact that it is making water more expensive for ordinary Chinese people. There is also a constant risk of environmental disaster, as the Yangtze River could dry up as a result. Antoine Boutet travels the length of the project, making meditative recordings of the strange landscapes it has created. Bare locks, brown rivers, industry without end and accumulations of gray-green towers dominate the project’s ever-expanding footprint. In a reforestation project located in a desert close to Beijing, a man squats, watering a few bare tree trunks with a garden hose: just one surreal image of a China many of us are completely unaware of. In spite of the omnipresent government propaganda for the project (including banners proclaiming “Making China more beautiful!”), the citizens suffering the consequences are less than impressed.