Considered to be the founding work of the New Documentary Movement, Wu's Bumming in Beijing follows five friends who refuse their officially assigned jobs and remain in Beijing as marginalized artists: an experimental theater director (Mou Sen), a writer (Zhang Ci), a photographer (Gao Bo), and two painters (Zhang Dali and Zhang Xia Ping). Clearly political, their decisions constitute a refusal to satisfy the regime's expectations. Wu's documentary starkly captures the insecurity of living outside of the sanctioned economy, as well as the difficulty of pursuing one's individual goals in a society based on conformity. Like its fictional predecessor, Zhang Yuan's Beijing Bastards, Bumming is also a wonderful exposé of life in the rarely glimpsed counterculture. Painting exhibitions at small storefronts, avant-garde theater rehearsals and other underground events set a scene few know exists. Interrupted by the Tiananmen Square massacre, Wu's well-detailed work finds his friends trying to create art amidst the ubiquitous depression. By tape's end, all but one of the artists, Mou Sen, have emigrated to Europe or the U.S., forsaking any hope for a liberalized China. Since moving to the Bay Area in the early 1990s, the writer May May (known as Zhang Ci in the film) has completed two books for Chinese publication, the newest being a study of the lives of twenty-six average American women. She will also appear on March 18 with At Home in the World.