The Times Are Calling
时代在召唤，单视频通道，彩色，有声，4 分 21 秒，2025
The Times Are Calling, Single channel video, color, sound, 4:21
72nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Children’s and Youth Film Competition, Germany
Since the late twentieth century, radio calisthenics have been incorporated into the school education system in China as a form of physical training that is uniformly choreographed by the state, learned collectively, and practiced repeatedly. Emphasizing synchronized rhythm, standardized movements, and collective coordination, they produce a highly regulated and unified bodily order. Times Are Calling is one of the most familiar sets of radio calisthenics in the everyday lives of Chinese middle and high school students.
This video work depicts a group of high school students performing radio calisthenics together, with the camera gradually focusing on one individual. In contrast to the surrounding bodies moving in strict unison, her movements appear improvised and slightly misaligned with the prescribed form, yet full of vitality. This subtle deviation becomes a concrete manifestation of “soft resistance” embedded in everyday life.
舒楚天 