Rural Chinese Schoolboy's Poetry Earns Film Accolades

As of October 3rd, 2025, the documentary 'Always' (从来) has been making waves in the film festival circuit, establishing itself as a strong contender for Oscar consideration despite a lack of theatrical distribution.

The film, directed by Deming Chen and produced by Hansen Lin, focuses on the unexpected power and poignancy of poetry written by a Chinese schoolboy and his classmates. Just last month, 'Always' won the top documentary award at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine, and a few days ago, it received a Special Jury Award at the Tirana International Film Festival in Albania.

The Tirana jury praised the film's "lyrical form and profound respect for its subject," noting that it "reminds us that poetry flows everywhere, even from the heart of a country boy, and can be a cinematic tool that transcends all barriers and allows us to connect with gazes and visions of distant realities."

The documentary's origins trace back to when Chen, who grew up in a rural area of Hunan province, learned of a middle school near his hometown where a teacher encouraged her students to write poetry - a rare occurrence in the Chinese education system. One of the students, Youbin Gong, wrote a poem titled "Ambiguity" that caught the director's attention and inspired him to craft the film around the young poet's story.

Chen's personal connection to Gong's experience of growing up with an absent parent resonated deeply, as the director himself had a similar childhood, often looking at a photo of his mother and wondering where she was. Producer Hansen Lin also identified closely with Gong's story, recalling his own childhood experience of being temporarily lost while searching for his mother, who had moved to the city for work.

'Always' maintains a focus on Gong and the pastoral world around him, deliberately avoiding a traditional narrative style in favor of a succession of powerful visual moments and scenes of the youngster with his aging grandparents. This sensory approach has been widely praised and has earned the film numerous accolades, including the DOX:Award at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen earlier this year, which qualified it for Oscar consideration.