Real Life in Beijing

A prophetic article published in 1908 begged three questions: Will a Chinese athlete ever have the honor to call himself an Olympian? Will a Chinese flag bearer ever proudly lead a team to the Olympic stadium? Is it too much of a dream that China will one day host the Olympic Games?

Exactly one century later, all of these questions have clear answers. But the story impressed Daryl Goodrich, the British director who came to Beijing in 2006 to prepare a short film about the host-to-be of the 2008 Olympic Games.

"It was a lovely story that shows Chinese people's dedication to sports," he recalls. "So I used it as the lead of my film."
Goodrich is one of the five directors invited by the Beijing government to shoot a five-minute film about the city as they saw it in their eyes. Entitled Vision Beijing, the two-year project also involves Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore, Iranian director Majid Majidi, French director Patrice Leconte and Hong Kong helmer Andrew Lau Wai-Keung.

From Chinadaily