Post-00s is a documentary about growing up

Post-00s is a documentary about growing up

Post-00s is a documentary about growing up.

It covers almost every aspect of millennials’experiences on their path toward adolescence – their struggles with school work, their relationship with peers, their confusion if a younger sibling is born into the family, and their growing desire to keep a distance from their parents.

《零零后》是一部关于成长的纪录片,涵盖了千禧一代们在通往青春期的路上几乎会经历的方方面面——学业上的努力、和同龄人之间的关系、家里弟弟妹妹的出生给他们所带来的困惑,以及他们想要和父母保持距离的强烈想法。

But this five-episode series, which aired on CCTV 9 from Aug 20, was different from any other TV program with a similar theme.

这部五集系列纪录片已于8月20日在央视记录频道播出,但和其他类似主题的电视节目相当不同。

To start with, Post-00s was filmed over a period of 10 years, during which the show’s makers followed a group of kids in Beijing from when they were toddlers through to when they became teenagers. In other words, the show’s “characters” grow older for real, and their stories are all real.

首先,《零零后》的拍摄周期超过十年。该节目的制片人们从北京一群孩子们蹒跚学步时起便对他们进行了跟拍,直到他们都长成了青少年。换句话说,该节目中的“人物”在现实生活中逐渐成长,他们的故事也全部是真实的。

“Coming-of-age” stories, as they’re known, have a special appeal. They satisfy our curiosity of peeking at someone else’s life, and we become more and more attached to the characters as if we truly know them. And while we enjoy the authenticity of the stories because nothing is set in advance, we also can’t help but feel the cruelty of reality. After all, there’s no re-writing of the script and there’s no turning back – this is real life.

这些被称为“真实成长”的故事有种特别的魅力。它们满足了我们围观他人生活的好奇心,我们也在人物角色身上投入了更多的感情,就像我们真的认识他们一样。而当我们欣赏着没有预设好的故事脚本所带来的真实性时,我们也不可避免地感到了现实的残酷。毕竟,故事中没有重写剧本或是回头的可能——这就是真实的生活。

“No dramatic scenes were needed for this documentary,” Zhang Tongdao, the show’s director, told China Daily. “Every detail or line comes from their lives. What I did was capture them.”

“这部纪录片不需要戏剧性的情景,”该节目的导演张同道在接受《中国日报》采访时表示。“每个细节、每句话都来源于生活。我所做的就是捕捉它们而已。”

This realness can also be seen in Boyhood (《少年时代》), a 2014 film that won the Silver Bear award for best director at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. During a span of 12 years, the film follows the life of Mason Jr– played by US actor Ellar Coltrane – from when he was 6 to when he finished high school.

这样的真实性也出现在了2014年的电影《少年时代》中。这部电影在第64届柏林国际电影节上摘得了金熊奖的最佳导演奖。该片围绕着主人公梅森(美国演员艾拉·科尔特兰饰)长达12年的生活展开,记录了他从6岁到高中毕业的故事。

One of Boyhood’s appeals comes from its “ordinariness”, according to Independent editor Geoffrey Macnab. “Mason Jr isn’t some child prodigy… He is a quietly spoken, fairly typical American boy, growing up in the Texas suburbs. He likes riding his bike and playing video games,” he wrote.

《独立报》编辑乔弗利·麦克那布认为,《少年时代》的魅力之一在于它的“平凡”。“梅森并非什么神童……他寡言少语,成长于德克萨斯州的郊区,是个相当典型的美国男孩,”他写道。

While coming-of-age stories may look ordinary on the outside, they often allow us to look underneath the surface and see something extraordinary – the power of life itself.

尽管“真实成长”的故事表面上看或许平淡无奇,但它们也经常让我们透过表面看到了一些不平凡的东西——生活本身的力量。

As US writer Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “Any man’s life, told truly, is a novel.” And in the case of Post-00s, it’s also a really good documentary.

正如美国作家欧内斯特·海明威所写的那样,“说实话,任何一个人的人生,都是一部小说。”而《零零后》也的确是部很棒的纪录片。

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