| Crude Oil | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Wang Bing |
| Editing by | Guo Hengqi |
| Distributed by | Wil Productions |
| Release date(s) | January 2008 (IFFR) 21 March 2008 (HKIFF) June 24–27, 2009 The Los Angeles Film Festival |
| Running time | 840 min. |
| Country | China Netherlands |
| Language | Mandarin |
Crude Oil (simplified Chinese: 采油日记; traditional Chinese: 採油日記; pinyin: Cǎi yóu rì jì) is a 2008 Chinese documentary film directed by Wang Bing. Filmed in the Inner Mongolian portion of the Gobi Desert, it follows a group of oil field workers as they go about their daily routine.
Like Wang's debut feature — the nine-hour Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks — Crude Oil is notable for its extreme length, running 840 minutes (14 hours). The original plan called for a 70-hour film, but Wang felt compelled to exert additional editorial control and reduced the work to its present length.[1] The director himself came down with severe altitude sickness and left the location three days into the one-week shoot; his crew completed the remainder without him.[2]
Crude Oil premiered (in a video installation setting) at the 2008 International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it received a "Special Mention" for "its dispassionate expose of the hardship of human labour which is the basis of economic progress."[3] The project was commissioned by the IFFR, with additional support from the Hubert Bals Fund.[1] It had its Asian premiere at the 2008 Hong Kong International Film Festival.[4] Its North American premiere was at The Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2009, with screenings held in Gallery 6 at the Hammer Museum.[5]
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