The “Exotic Flavour Talent Agency” can turn a rural Chinese ghost town into a booming world-class city for the afternoon. Company CEO Suky and his assistant Yana organise attention-grabbing performances and talent shows in cooperation with property developers and local government officials to make real estate more appealing to potential buyers. At estate openings they stage dazzling spectacles where foreigners (seldom seen in these areas of the country) are presented as famous entertainers, important businessmen, top-20 models, diplomats, architects and more. The performances are timed right for when prospective buyers from cities arrive and are intended to give properties a “modern appeal.”

In Chinese Dreamland, the success of Suky and Yana’s foreigner-focused talent agency is tied to questions concerning racial diversity and globalisation, as well as the sustainability of China’s rapid urban development. During the height of the housing boom, the pair continuously travel to remote development projects and stage spectacles that turn them into “cities of the future” – as defined by the surreal imaginations of provincial Chinese politicians and developers.

But soon the demand for foreign talent becomes a deflating housing bubble. Facing increasing financial pressure, both Suky and Yana are thrown into desperation and must fight to save their business and aspirations. Ultimately, they come to have second thoughts on their industry — and the “Chinese dream” in general.

Chinese Dreamland will be featured on Al Jazeera English on 16 September.

Director: David Borenstein
Producer: Jesper Jack
Runtime: 60′
http://houseofreal.dk/

Position Among the Stars completes director Leonard Retel Helmrich‘s multi award-winning trilogy capturing complexities of religion, politics, and now economics, following the lives of one family in a Jakarta slum.

Helmrich follows Tari, the only educated child of the family, as she struggles with the impulses of becoming a teenager with their expectations of her as their hope for a better future.

Filmed over 12 years using Helmich’s own ingenious technique dubbed "single-shot cinema", each of the three films – Eye of the Day, Shape of the Moon and Position Among the Stars – stands alone in its message and time, while providing both a microscopic look into the changing Indonesian life and into globalisation.

Position Among the Stars will be released in UK theatres on 17 February. 

 **Winner, Sundance World Cinema Special Jury prize – Best Documentary 2011**

**Winner, IDFA Award – Best Feature-Length Documentary 2010**

 Directed by: Leonard Retel Helmrich

Year: 2010

Length: 115′ 

One aspect of this drama, however, remains largely unnoticed. It struck me as quite surreal to read the list of passengers: abroad the plane were,

58 Brazilian, 61 French, 26 German, 2 American, 1 South African, 1 Argentinian, 1 Austrian, 1 Belgian, 5 British, 1 Canadian, 9 Chinese, 1 Croatian, 2 Spanish, 4 Hunagrian, 3 Irish, 1 Icelandic, 9 Italian, 5 Lebanese, 2 Morroccan, 1 Filipino,  2 Polish, 1 Romanian, 1 Russian, 3 Slovakian, 1 Danish, 1 Estonian, 1 Gambian, 1 Swedish, 6 Swiss, 1 Dutch, 3 Norwegian and 1 Turk.

Yes, that’s right: no less than 32 nationalities were abroad that plane, flying from Rio to Paris, two main tourist destinations. A significant portion of the world! The plane carried a mix of businessmen – senior executives of French tire maker Michelin SA and German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp were on board – and regular tourists flying to one wonderful city to another.

In any case, the fact that all these nationalities were victims is food for thought. This was clearly an event that could only happen in globalized times. Right now citizens of countries in all 5 continents are following with anxiety the search for any trace of the plane that carried their fellow citizens.

The fact that the drama is being monitored by 24 hour news channels in (at least) every one of those countries makes the tragedy even greater, in an ever smaller world. Irreversibly, more and more tragedies will affect people from different countries.

But while the national media of these countries focuses on their own citizens, international journalism is missing a great chance to take in the great side of globalization: the fact that it shows that people are mixed, are everywhere, and are equal. Unfortunately, the Airbus disaster seems to prove exactly this. 

A transnational journalistic approach to events in this new era is still to be developed.