Documentary films capture the folk culture of Sanmenxia

Camera crew from Henan Broadcasting System shoots the view of Niu Tianyi spinning on bed in Renmazhai village. [Photo/ WeChat account: hhsbzsjsj]

Renmazhai village in Sanmenxia city received attention from Henan Broadcasting System with its intangible cultural heritages.

Early this September, a camera crew was sent by the system to the village to shoot a feature film Craftsmen, telling the stories of folk cultures inheritors. Renmazhai village was chosen, since its home to four inheritors for five intangible cultural heritage items.

Zhu Xiuyun is a special inheritor as she has mastered two items – Chui Cao Yin Hua, an ancient printing and dyeing skills, and paper cutting. At the same time Zhu's husband Wang Runniu is the inheritor of cave house, an old styled house made by digging holes on flat loess land.

An Ning, in charge of the camera crew, explained that what touched him the most was that Niu's three daughters all learned the ancient skills from their mother. Even the granddaughter Niu Tianyi who is less than 30 strived to master the Chui Cao Yin Hua skill. "My major is music, but I believe that all arts are interlinked. They are rooted in real lives," Niu Tianyi said.

To shoot the documentary film, the camera crew had to live with the Niu family. "This is a documentary therefore only once we live like that can we truly understand their special emotions towards the arts, thus we can be storytellers," said An.

An said that he started to learn about intangible cultural heritages since 2008 and found that some skills were in danger of dying out. Therefore, the film was expected to record those ancient art skills and arouse people's attention to protect and pass them down generations.

The feature film Inheritance shoot concludes 12 episodes in Sanmenxia and Craftsmen is one of them. The film will be broadcasted on CCTV, Henan TV and other media platforms.