Welcome to Babel

Chinese-Australian Artist Jiawei Shen has a plan. His wife Lan Wang says it is crazy. But nothing can stop him on his obsessive mission to create a monumental 130 square metre painting of the turbulent history of Communism. Jiawei’s 10-year deep dive into the bloody history of revolution is counterpointed by a profoundly intimate portrait of his marriage to artist wife Lan, forged in the chaos of Mao’s Chinese Cultural Revolution. With hundreds of portraits and remixes of iconic artworks, can Jiawei complete his epic Tower of Babel masterpiece while facing the considerable risks of revealing it to the world?

Director: James Bradley

James Bradley has worked in film and TV for 40 years, variously as a writer, producer, director and editor of numerous documentary films and series. He has a reputation for telling powerful stories and a passion for cross-cultural collaboration.  He co-directed 50 Years of Silence which won the AFI Best Documentary Award and produced and directed the multi award-winning Ochre and Ink, the story of Chinese-Australian artist Zhou Xiaoping and his 23-year collaboration with Aboriginal artists.

His many editing credits include a slate of award-winning Australian Indigenous projects including the dramatic feature Radiance and documentaries Dhakiyarr vs The King, Mr Patterns, 5 Seasons, In My Father’s Country, art + soul and Occupation: Native. James also produced the documentaries Destiny In Alice, Blown Away, and Under a Pagan Sky for ABC TV, and has taught film production and editing at Metro Screen, the University of Western Sydney, AFTRS, and Macquarie University.

James was awarded the 2005 Australian Fim Institute Editing Award for Mr Patterns, and in 2019 he was presented with the prestigious Stanley Hawes Award for Outstanding Contribution to Documentary in Australia.

About ORION IFF

ORION International Film Festival is dedicated to finding original, thought-provoking films that push the boundaries of storytelling. The festival features a broad range of genres catering for many filmmakers. Founded in Australia, the ORION International Film Festival includes competitive categories and live screening events. It aims to recognise original and inspiring films by independent and new filmmakers. ORION IFF aims to identify and empower filmmakers across the Globe. The 2025 ORION IFF will hold curated screening events in the picturesque Granite Belt Region of Southern Queensland, Australia, and Berlin, Germany's political and cultural capital.ORION International Film Festival is a celebration of filmmaking honouring artistry, creativity, and diversity showcased by filmmakers worldwide, fostering a platform for cinematic expression and cultural exchange.

Director Statement

Ever since Jiawei first told me in April 2012 about his ambitious and slightly crazy plan to paint a monumental Tower of Babel that tells the history of world Communism, I’ve been fascinated by this project. We started filming with Jiawei and family in December of that year and have since become entwined in their lives.I had previously visited China numerous times with my wife Cathy Li (RIP), and we had filmed there with artist Zhou Xiaoping for my film Ochre and Ink (2011). In the following years, we were members of Screen Australia delegations to SCTVF in Chengdu in 2013, the Australia-China Documentary Forum in Beijing in 2013 and Asian Side of the Doc in Xiamen in 2015. Later in 2015 we filmed in Beijing with Jiawei and family at the Beijing Art Biennale and other significant locations.The story of Jiawei & Lan’s lives, from growing up during the Cultural Revolution in Mao’s China, their unlikely relationship, and their migration to Australia in the late 1980s, is representative of many Chinese-Australians, but particularly engaging due to their great artistic talents and illustrious reputations. Through their own personal stories and Jiawei’s Tower of Babel, we can experience the dramatic and often traumatic world of 20th Century Communism, from the inside. From visions of Socialist Utopia through extraordinary adventures and profound comradeship, to misery in the frozen Gulag, we get a window into the lives of many millions of people.While the subject matter is serious, Jiawei and Lan tell their stories with a lot of humour, expressing the absurdity of life in Revolutionary China, where so little made sense to the people themselves who had to live through times of constant tumultuous change. There is also a lot of surreal humour in Jiawei’s Tower of Babel, as famous personalities, artworks, love stories and battles jostle for space on the walls of his massive studio, hidden in the sleepy coastal town of Bundeena.I have wanted Welcome To Babel to provide an opportunity for an audience to experience art and history in a film that incorporates drama and entertainment through multifaceted story-telling. And to show how great art comes out of the life experiences of those who produce it. I hope the film achieves its aims.