‘Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish’ Review: A Visually Captivating and Emotionally Rewarding Chronicle of a Chinese Family

variety.com:

Richard Kuipers Family photos, propaganda images and grainy archival footage are manipulated, re-processed and overlaid with wonderfully simple and highly effective animation in “Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish.” This imaginative documentary essay by 36-year-old U.S.-based Chinese artist-animator-filmmaker Lei Lei assembles striking imagery and deeply personal audio recordings to chart his family’s history in China from the late 1950s to the early ’70s.

Though it runs a little too long, “Silver Bird” should have a bright future at general film festivals and those specializing in animation.After basing his 2019 feature debut “Breathless Animals” on his mother’s recollections of life in 20th century China, Lei has turned this time to audio interviews he conducted with his father Lei Jiaqi and grandfather Lei Ting in China between 2012 and 2021.

Their edited memories of family life begin during the Great Leap Forward (1958-62) and conclude four years before Mao Zedong’s death brought China’s disastrous Cultural Revolution (1966-76) to a close.

Mixing media and employing all manner of animation techniques from cel drawings to step printing of his own hands working with the raw materials of the film itself, Lei has fashioned an eye-catching picture of China during these dark times.