Awati County, Aksu City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China - May 6, 2025 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of local residents, film crew, setting up premiere site
2. Various of crew members, Zhang Qiang, Arkin families, taking photos, signing for premiere, talking
3. SOUNDBITE (Chinese, dubbed in English) Barna Arkin, cotton farmer (starting with shot 2/partially overlaid with shot 4):
"For me, the most important thing about taking part in this film is to show people that this is our real life and our real emotions. I get emotional when I watch it now, and I'm sure when I watch it again."
++SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++
4. Audiences clapping
++SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++
5. SOUNDBITE (Uygur, dubbed in English) Arkin Talip, cotton farmer (ending with shot 6):
"The film crew went through great ordeals to shoot this film here for three years."
6. Various of audiences clapping, dancing

Awati County, Aksu City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
7. Various of clips of Fabric of Lives, presenting two families harvesting cottons, having meal, talking with relatives

Awati County, Aksu City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China - May 6, 2025 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. SOUNDBITE (Chinese, dubbed in English) Liu Guoyi, director (partially overlaid with shot 9):
"We didn't come to tell a 'story.' We came to discover and listen to what their life was like. What we learned was a different way of living, and though we often didn't speak the same language, by the time we finished filming, we had a heart-to-heart connection."

Awati County, Aksu City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
++SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++
9. Liu Guoyi, director, visiting Arkin family
++SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++
10. Various of Liu Yang, producer, talking, making dumplings with Arkin family

Awati County, Aksu City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China - May 6, 2025 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
11. SOUNDBITE (Chinese, dubbed in English) Liu Yang, producer (ending with shot 12):
"When I saw the film for the first time, it moved me too, to see these families who have been writing this 'script' with their calluses for generations. But they also have a very upbeat attitude about life—after a long day of work and dinner, they would get up dance and sing."

Awati County, Aksu City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
12. Various of clips of Fabric of Lives, presenting local residents dancing, street views, people plowing with plowing machine

A Chinese documentary about the real lives of two cotton-growing families in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region premiered on Tuesday, portraying their everyday challenges and triumphs in Awati County.

The premier of the documentary Fabric of Lives took place outdoors against the backdrop of cotton fields in Awati, where the two featured local families in the documentary, Zhang Qiang and Arkin, have toiled for decades.

"For me, the most important thing about taking part in this film is to show people that this is our real life and our real emotions. I get emotional when I watch it now, and I'm sure when I watch it again," said Barna Arkin, the daughter of the Arkin Family.

Her father, a stoic farmer, also expressed gratitude for the shared moments with the crew.

"The film crew went through great ordeals to shoot this film here for three years," said Arkin Talip.

Scheduled for screening on Wednesday, the documentary took genuine efforts to complete, and it is not a scripted narrative but rather a genuine attempt to capture the daily lives of the local people, according to the filmmakers.

"We didn't come to tell a 'story.' We came to discover and listen to what their life was like. What we learned was a different way of living, and though we often didn't speak the same language, by the time we finished filming, we had a heart-to-heart connection," said Liu Guoyi, the documentary's director.

The film emphasizes the power of real-life stories, woven together not by scriptwriters but by the resilience and positive attitude of the people themselves.

"When I saw the film for the first time, it moved me too, to see these families who have been writing this 'script' with their calluses for generations. But they also have a very upbeat attitude about life—after a long day of work and dinner, they would get up dance and sing," said Liu Yang, the film's producer.