I came upon your blog while researching a documentary film I’m developing in China, and enjoyed looking through it. I would have sent this as an email if I could have, sorry to post it on your blog. If this missive is at all up your alley, I’d be grateful for any suggestions you might have, but if not - know you have a reader in Brooklyn!

I’m a documentary filmmaker based in NY — my films have aired on HBO and PBS/POV. If you want to check out my work, you can visit (www.grannyd.com, www.marloporas.com). I’m partnering with Yu Ying Wu Chou on this project, she edited the PBS/Frontline series Country Boys (www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/countryboys/).

We’re documentary portraitists - we craft intimate portraits of women over time. For the past few months we’ve been researching a new film about young urban women in China. We made our first research trip to Beijing in March and will return in September.

So much has been written/researched about the one child generation, particularly about the “Little Emperors,” but we’re most interested in the new opportunities and realities for young women in China. We find the story of the women of the one child generation to be pretty fascinating - they’re the first generation of girls in Chinese history to be the sole focus of not just their parents but their extended family’s life - with all the parents attention and future prospects resting on these girls shoulders. It engenders a different sense of self and of possibility, even if parents are ambivalent about having a girl.

We’re eager to meet single young woman roughly between the ages of 23-32 who might fit the bill as a documentary subject. We plan to make an intimate portrait of a young woman over the course of one to two years, making approx 4-5 trips per year, each trip lasting 1-2 weeks. We’d like to craft a full portrait of the woman’s life - as full as is possible - including her friends, family, and workplace. The film would mainly consist of the reality of her everyday life, augmented with interviews — so we’d be filming her as flies on the wall during her everyday life.

The film would detail the complicated reality of life for young urban women — the excitement of the manifold possibilities for them, the hard reality many of them face in terms of having to support their parents or in terms of struggling to figure themselves and their own futures out — so we can give Americans a much richer portrait of the growing middle class than anything they’ve seen.

The most important qualities we’re looking for are charisma, comfort in front of the camera, openness, and good self-awareness. We’re totally flexible as far as interests/background. Our goal on the next trip is to meet as many women as possible, the more the better.

All this is an extremely long introduction! I hope that the project piques your interest. If you have any recommendations of people we should contact, we’d be incredibly grateful — either for women who might be potential subjects for the film, or for people who might be able to introduce us to women.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. Thanks for your time!

All my best,
Marlo Poras

marloporas@aol.com

This is indeed a nice birthday present and I cannot wait to see pictures of this in motion.

I see it green with some shamrocks, a cooler of Beer, and two Chineese Girls.

This thing will match the green suit soon enough & ready for a tour of Beijing