The Football Incident

This short film actually focuses not on the soccer incident itself, but on its consequences. A boy kicks a ball after a teacher has said recess is over. This apparently minor incident prompts a classroom discussion in which the events are examined ideologically. Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan-Ivens's film is one part in the 12-part series , which they made from 1972 to 1976 at the invitation of the Chinese Prime Minister Zhou En-Lai. Zhou was attempting to introduce more moderate policies following the first radical and violent years of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Despite the chaos it had brought to Mainland China, Zhou wanted to present a positive image to the outside world. Ivens and Loridan traveled with young filmmakers around a country that was all but sealed off from the rest of the world. Despite being filmed in cinema verité style, the director’s gaze does not fall on the darker aspects of the regime. In this episode, Chinese schoolchildren in the class and playground chat effusively, spontaneously and unaffectedly.