Hot Docs

Reminiscent of the incredible films of Chris Marker, Disorder is a skillful collage of more than 20 absurd street scenes from a bustling Chinese urban centre, all intended to demonstrate this observation from director Weikai Huang: “The faster Chinese urbanization advances, the stranger people’s behaviors and moral standards become.” Huang gathers footage from several videographers who filmed various urban events—pigs running wildly on a highway, pedestrians risking their lives to cross a busy street, the discovery of a cultural relic on a construction site—and artfully combines them, often overlapping sound to connect the seemingly unrelated occurrences. The effect is one of the most compelling documentary evocations of the ethical and moral growing pains of China’s rapidly encroaching urbanization. - Shannon Abel

Co-presented with Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.

Media Coverage

National Post (Capsule Review), NOW Magazine (4-star Review)