Posted by 
Chengdu’s Yulin neighborhood has long nurtured a grassroots poetry culture. In the summer of 2026, two high school students wandered through its streets, interviewing and filming at several poetry bars.
As social media attention turns Yulin into a destination for entertainment, overshadowing the neighborhood’s original spirit, the two filmmakers seek to look beyond the filters and capture what idealism looks like in Yulin today: how poetry has taken root in the rhythms of everyday life, offering solace in the face of reality; and how poets’ ideals continue to thrive amid the everyday work of running bars and making a living. Utopia After Dusk pays tribute to the spiritual utopia that finds its home in ordinary life.
Directed by Yilin Yan and Sophia Wang (China)