Description

In Ordos, China, thousands of farmers are being relocated into a new city under a government plan to modernize the region. “The Land of Many Palaces” follows a government official whose job is to convince these farmers that their lives will be better off in the city, and a farmer in one of the last remaining villages in the region who is pressurized to move. The film explores a process that will take shape on an enormous scale across China, since the central government announced plans to relocate 250 million farmers to cities across the nation, over the next 20 years.

Adam is a Stanford-educated documentary filmmaker from England. His films focus on characters experiencing rapid change in their lives. To date, he has produced, directed and edited four short documentaries in America – The Diner, Love & Allegiance (co-dir Tijana Petrovic), Shangri-La, Role Play – and one feature documentary in China, The Land of Many Palaces (co-dir Song Ting). He is currently in the pre-production stage for his next two feature-documentaries in China: Mountain Town (working title) about the replica Wyoming town of Jackson Hole in Hebei, and On the Banks of the Pearl River (working title) exploring entrepreneurialism in Shenzhen. In addition to making his own films, he has worked for TED, the Journal Sentinel, Rabbit Bandini Productions, Stanford’s Office of Public Affairs, the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, and the Chinese National Academy of Painting.