Three years ago, I went to a workshop in Ottawa. Here I met my dear friend Lixin Fan. At the time he had just arrived from China with big dreams to make a documentary about the world’s largest human migration, which happens in China during the new year when migrant workers return home for the holidays. He didn’t know anyone, he wasn’t sure where to begin, but he could see the film in his mind, and damn it, he was going to make it.
I was present the first time Lixin pitched the film, in an big auditorium in front of a crowd of strangers. He had rehearsed for days in the hostel we stayed in carefully going over every word, perfecting the cadence of his voice I could tell you it went off without a hitch, but that would be a lie. It was tough, because the business is tough. Making films is kinda like climbing Everest without oxygen – sure it can be done, but it’s next to impossible and perhaps not the best idea. You have to want it bad.
This is Lixin’s film. It is complete. He pitched it, he filmed it, he edited it. Certainly film making is a collaborative art, but Last Train Home is truly his film. Later this month it will premiere at IDFA, where it will screen in competition, before making its way through the festival loop and into theaters around the world.
I am, simply put, just so damn proud.
