‘It’s better than dying of hunger’: plight of Chinese miners with deadly lung disease exposed in new documentary
- Miners, the Horsekeeper and Pneumoconiosis tells the story of an iron ore miner in Hunan, central China, dying of lung disease after toiling in an illegal mine
- The film can only be seen at private screenings, says director Jiang Ningxie, because he won’t submit it to censors. Film censorship is too strict, he says
From the age of 15, Zhao Pinfeng worked for two decades as an iron ore miner in a remote, mountainous area of Hunan province in central China.
Several years ago Zhao, who by then had two children and whose wife is mentally challenged, was diagnosed with pneumoconiosis, a fatal lung disease. He lost the ability to work and had to breathe through a ventilator. On one fateful night in 2018, an electricity outage at his village stopped his ventilator. He died the next day.
Zhao’s final days were recorded for a documentary feature, Miners, the Horsekeeper and Pneumoconiosis. Directed by Jiang Nengjie, the 81-minute film revolves around Hunan villagers who relied on the illegal mines for a living before they were closed down by the government. They include porters who transport the mine explosives and iron shards, and miners like Zhao.
The film shows how the use of illegal explosives and mining without protective gear damaged the health of villagers, with many of them contracting pneumoconiosis.
The film, which Jiang started making in 2010, has scored 8.6 out of 10 on Douban, China’s leading film review site. The 35-year-old director attracted much media attention recently for distributing the film privately for free viewing by sending download links to friends, who then spread it around.