The Swap
33 mins
The Swap is the third chapter of the PolEc Trilogy, comprising Wandering Marxwards (1998) and The Three Failures (2006). It features the same character as in the previous episodes, but now reduced to a lost, exhausted soul roaming Shanghai's cityscape from the remotest periphery to the financial district. Another narrative, spoken this one, takes us to September 2008, as gigantic bailouts put the financial system on life support instead of letting it collapse, thus seizing our reality and replacing it with a fiction tailored for the situation. These two streams end up meeting on a Shanghai dancefloor, where unresolved contradictions can finally be performed.
Michael Blum
Self
Bake He
Dancer
Cherry Wang
Dancer
Choi A Ran
Dancer
He Zhijie
Dancer
Jia Junjie
Dancer
Liu Huiling
Dancer
Qian Yunqiu
Dancer
Yang Yahang
Dancer
Zhang Wanying
Dancer
Zhu Er
Dancer
Zhu Li
Dancer
Sara Di Donato
Dancer
Paulina Przeniczna
Dancer
Yulina Semenova
Dancer
Paul Han
DJ
Henry Waxman
Self (voice)
Saskia Sassen
Self (voice)
Sara Di Donato
Production Assistant
Paul Han
Production Assistant
Roberto Gianstefani
Steadicam Operator
Michael Blum
Director
Roberto Gianstefani
Camera Operator
Ray Qui
Production Assistant
Carlotta Godio
Project Manager
Zhu Li
Translator
Roberto Gianstefani
Sound Recordist
Zhu Li
Production Assistant
Filippo Soevv
Production Assistant
Zhu Li
Location Scout
Michael Gilson
Script Editor
Laura Novo
Post-Production Manager
Bruno Bélanger
Audio Post Coordinator
Michael Blum
Writer
Michael Blum
Editor