Between the lines

The name “Between the Lines” has three indicates: The lines can be two rails on the railway, the lines can be two kinds of people who are different cultural & geographical groups; the lines also can be the comparative storyline about Runxin’s status and Tibet teenagers’

Produced by Charlotte Duanmu, Xingran Li (Jocelyn), Qianyi Wang (Agnes), Runxin Mao (Mason)

Our group took  34-hour green-skin train, it’s the slowest and cheapest train in China. We filmed four stories on this train. However, we finally chose the story of teenagers living in Tibet, because they are of a similar age to us and their songs are also very attractive. This story was filmed during the time of the green train.

For this project, we gained many skills to shoot a film as a team, including how to communicate with people and how to use certain filming equipment. It is most important thing for each of us is to gained how to connect with the interviewees so that they can feel relaxed and easey during the interview.

This is a journey on the green train from Qinghai to Lhasa, the section of the railway called the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, also known as the Tian Lu (Road to Heaven). Average altitude is more than 3000 meters and easily get altitude stress. During the journey of more than a day, we met passengers who boarded the train for various reasons. Among them, we included a story about a group of young people who’s heart belong to plateau, they work in Xining and other cities, took the train and were about to return to their hometown to pick caterpillar fungus.