We are deeply honored to receive the Outstanding student award.

Last year, we began filming an ethnographic documentary titled Once Upon a Time in Dongmen, based on five months of fieldwork and filming in Shenzhen. After another six months of editing, we completed a one-hour documentary. The film has also been selected for screening at the 19th FIRST Youth Film Festival, German International Ethnographic Film Festival, Nordic Anthropological Film Association International Ethnographic Film Festival, and we are incredibly grateful that the project has been seen and supported in this way.

The film emerged from our observations in Shenzhen’s Dongmen street, where the rise of the live-streaming economy intersects with changing forms of urban management, creating a vibrant yet contradictory social landscape. Through the lives of streamers, we try to explore the vulnerabilities and uncertainties of people working within the flow economy. Using a large amount of TikTok livestream recordings, we attempt to convey the atmosphere of online performance and the shifting sense of time that unfolds across multiple screens.

The film follows streamers’ personal stories and the tensions they encounter between outdoor streaming and public regulation. Through a nonlinear narrative and multiple perspectives, we hope to reflect on the precarious nature of digital fame and the broader cultural transformations taking place in contemporary society.

As a two-person team, we worked together in many roles. As directors, camera operators, and producers. Alongside the film, we also organized several screenings and discussions to create space for conversations about the social issues reflected in the documentary.

This award means a great deal to us. It encourages us to continue exploring social issues and practicing care through documentary filmmaking and to keep engaging with the communities and questions that inspire our work. Thank you again for supporting our project and for recognizing our efforts.