'Buried' Yet Committed to Memory

Plain, heavy and harsh looking, the title of the documentary appears against the memorial walls etched with the names of more than 240,000 victims of the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake.

Taken as a whole, Wang Libo's latest documentary offers a model at examining official responses to disasters in China. Centered on narration by scientists and researchers who were on the frontlines of the Tangshan earthquake, the tracing back of events begins with questions that arose after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province. "Buried" refers to not only the victims buried in the collapsed buildings, but also the botched cover-up by authorities. "Documentaries should bear a connection to the life we live now," Wang once said. With this emphasis in mind, the documentary is deployed as an investigative medium.