The screening on 14 February will be followed by an online Q&A with the director Lu Qingyi, moderated by Chinese Cinema Project curator Millie Zhou.
Four Springs is a documentary film that presents a family’s daily life in the remote town in southern Guizhou Province. Made on a tiny budget, the film is the debut feature by director Lu Qingyi, who had no prior filmmaking training before purchasing a camera and tripod in 2013 and beginning to film his own family during his annual returns home for Chinese New Year, initially as a personal diary.
From a subjective angle, the camera introduces the flow of life out of the screen: the quotidian toils, singing, excursions in nature, visits among friends and extended families, funerals, reunions, and separation. It presents the state of being of the two main characters, the director’s own parents, and their open-minded, pristine philosophy of life.
This special screening celebrates Chinese New Year 2026 (Year of Horse). It is the fourth successive Garden Cinema CNY special event, following the UK Premiere of Kong Dashan’s Journey to the West in 2023, a dress-up screening of Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love in 2024 and screening of Bi Gan’s Kaili Blues in 2025.
