Clip from the documentary Skylight Kunming: A Toast

In this clip, filmed in Kunming, China, a biker runs down 14 flights of stairs and then rides through the city. Australian flower hybridizer Grant Mitchell explains how he will create a new lotus variety in memory of Michael Sutherland. The music is by This Ascension and Jason Grant. The clip is taken from the documentary made by Benjamin Sutherland and described below with a synopsis in English and French. See www.SonikChromatik.com for more information.




ENGLISH SYNOPSIS

Skylight Kunming, a 38-minute biodoc of the late of Santa Barbara, California, filmed in his adopted home of Kunming, China, sketches the multifaceted pioneer credited with introducing adventure mountain biking to Yunnan province, and Yunnan-hemp prêt-à-porter fashion to the United States and Western Europe. Street scenes set to music, archive images, and a cast of Kunming locals and expats help recreate the world of Sutherland, a hirsute and entertaining unofficial US ambassador to a Chinese hinterland.




Sutherland vignettes include farcical business dealings with Communist Party officials, starlit discussions of hypothetical worlds, insect behavior, and what the popularity of Coca-Cola reveals about Chinese capitalism. A telling anecdote portrays a spontaneous decision to hop off his bike and direct traffic during gridlock one morning—a stunt that landed Sutherland in a front-page newspaper headline as "a Goodhearted American." Taken together, a portrait emerges of an intriguing figure—one who soon will be immortalized by IWGS, the international registrar of lotus varieties, as a new lotus variety, the Michael Sutherland.




FRENCH SYNOPSIS

Skylight Kunming est un film documentaire de 38 minutes sur feu Michael Sutherland, californien de Santa Barbara. Tourné à Kunming, sa ville dadoption, dans la province chinoise du Yunnan, ce portrait posthume dépeint un défricheur bigarré connu pour avoir introduit à lOuest les vêtements en chanvre du Yunnan et popularisé localement le vélo tout terrain. Scènes de rues, images darchives et témoignages damis et de citadins composent le monde cocasse de Michael Sutherland, sorte dambassadeur américain échevelé et facétieux. On y décrit entre autres ses tractations commerciales farcesques avec les officiels communistes, ses discussions à la belle étoile sur les mondes hypothétiques et le comportement des insectes. On y évoque ce matin dembouteillage à un carrefour engorgé où Michael a spontanément réglé la circulation, ce qui lui a valu les gros titres dun journal local : « Un Américain au grand cœur ». Skylight Kunming révèle un personnage captivant, bientôt immortalisé par IWGS — lassociation internationale denregistrement des fleurs deau — dans une nouvelle variété de lotus, la Michael Sutherland.

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• benjamin sutherland
• skylight kunming
• kunming

[pablosutherland1]

love the sound editing on this clip, very cool

[brian889mac]

Shaky.