Beijing Taxi (working title) - Feature length documentary work in progress China surfaces in the last decade into the forefront of Western consciousness and relevance through its unprecedented speed of economic development. The ancient capital city of Beijing races towards preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games. Beijingers witness the demolitions of historical districts and most housing complexes built before the 1970s paving the way for luxury high rise apartments and commercial buildings. They are increasingly pushed into the outer suburbs due to sharply increasingly real estate prices comparable to that of metropolitan Western cities. Their general quality of life has drastically improved, but there is also an increasing sense of isolation and loss of community. Remembrance of things past is put aside in pursuit of immediate modernization. Beijing Taxi (working title) is a documentary that captures this city under rapid transformations through the microcosmic thread of the ordinary lives of taxi drivers. Taxi drivers in Beijing are the windows for foreigners to Beijing during the Olympics. They will greet the world and welcome them to the new China. Beijing taxi drivers are unique in their notoriously gregarious characters. Being so close to the central government and spending most of their 14 hours days listening to the radio and talk shows, they are known to chat openly about everything from banal banter to social-political issues. Using the thread of taxis the film also presents a unique and intimate visual montage of many different characteristics of Beijing. Beijing Taxi is a poetic journey into a fragment of a society riding through the bumpy roads to modernization. e80 Written by Miao Wang