Uli Gaulke
2013 | 90 minutes | Germany, The Netherlands, China
U.S. Premiere | Director in Attendance
As Time Goes By in Shanghai captures a city and a country in flux through the eyes of the venerable Peace Old Jazz Band, a group that has played together for more than 30 years and includes musicians who have been performing since the 1940s. Jazz and their dedication to it have endured as the world around them has continuously transformed, from the Japanese occupation through the Cultural Revolution to today’s turbo-charged capitalist society. As Shanghai remakes itself again and again, and China with it, they watch, and they play. With rare insights into this most mutable city as a backdrop, the film follows the band across the world to the Rotterdam’s North Sea Jazz Festival on a journey that crystallizes the joy and hope they find in their music.