First Moon First Moon continues the exploration begun in Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon's Long Bow Trilogy (see Sunday, January 24) of life in a rural Chinese village. These films are made under unprecedented circumstances, without interpreters or restrictions, and the result is a sparkling rapport in which the villagers become genial collaborators in the filmmaking process. Carma Hinton is a Beijing-born American, educated in China and at Harvard University, who has traveled and worked throughout the Chinese countryside. Richard Gordon, a cinematographer and photojournalist, also has worked in several Chinese villages and factories. Opening to the music of a primitive horn player that sounds strangely like modern jazz, First Moon explores the fifteen day celebration of the New Year, from the new moon to the full moon. The celebration has both practical and traditional meaning for the villagers, as a time of renewal before beginning another year of hard work, and as a time to honor the memory of one's ancestors and the gods that govern the realms of the peasant world. The villagers good-naturedly recognize the importance of both: "Why do you burn incense?" a woman is asked. "It's superstition," she replies, "just to tell the gods we recognize they are there." As the days progress toward the full moon, the festivities increase and become more public; parades featuring traditional costumes (everybody curiously wearing sunglasses), an enchanting dance of the sea creatures, children made-up and dressed in colorful brocade, their faces lost in blank expressions, all suggest a merging with timeless tradition. But when the villagers take the parade to town, the words to their chants resonate with modernity: "Population control is most important; better to have one child."