BUSAN, South Korea — A dinosaur’s head peers out from a tangle of wildflowers. Half a horse stands watch beside saplings and scattered blossoms. These fragments are part of Ms. Hu’s hidden garden in Chongqing’s Shibati scenic area — once the heart of commerce in this megacity in southwestern China.

This unlikely garden, crafted from scraps and relics collected from the city’s streets, seems worlds apart from the surrounding construction site, where trucks and cranes relentlessly reshape this 1,000-year-old neighborhood.

And in a city constantly remaking itself, Ms. Hu has built a sanctuary from what others discard. Her story lies at the heart of filmmaker Pan Zhiqi’s “Ms. Hu’s Garden,” a documentary capturing her 10-year effort to preserve a piece of the past as Shibati fades into the future.

Hu Guangrong, the subject of the documentary’s title, has been part of Shibati’s community fabric for decades. She runs a modest hotel, charging three yuan (40 US cents) a night, for rural workers who come to Chongqing seeking employment. She also collects discarded items she finds on the streets, selling them to make ends meet.

Over a decade, Pan returned regularly to Shibati, capturing Ms. Hu’s journey as the city evolved around her. His footage traces the expected — sweeping changes brought by an estimated 167.5 billion yuan ($23 billion) redevelopment effort — but it’s the unexpected layers of her life that give the story its depth.

She juggles multiple jobs, cares for a son struggling with depression, and looks out for others in her community, all while striving to carve out a future in a place she’s called home for decades. Her story speaks to the quiet resilience of those left behind in China’s rush to modernize — ordinary people determined to hold onto their roots and sense of place, even as the world around them evolves.

It’s a gripping watch across its 103-minute runtime and aligns with Pan’s body of work. The filmmaker, born in Wenzhou, in the eastern Zhejiang province, previously produced “24th Street,” another documentary set in Chongqing’s inner-city communities. That film earned a nomination for best documentary at the prestigious Golden Horse Awards in 2017.

In June, “Ms. Hu’s Garden” won the best documentary award at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival, one of China’s major film events, before making its international premiere in competition at the 29th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in South Korea this October.

While working on “Ms. Hu’s Garden,” Pan continued teaching film at the Communication University of Zhejiang in the provincial capital, Hangzhou. Sitting down with Sixth Tone on the sidelines of the BIFF, Pan discusses international reactions to his work, his decade of filming in Shibati, and his path to documentary filmmaking. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Sixth Tone: First of all, congratulations on the film’s success so far. How did the audience react when it screened here in Busan?

Pan: Thank you. To be honest, before making this film, I wasn’t focused on what I wanted to convey to the audience. I was caught up in simply creating it, knowing there were many layers and a lot happening within the story. But both Chinese and Korean audiences have been able to see these different aspects, which makes me happy. Everyone seems to take away something unique, with different opinions, and I think that’s wonderful.

Sixth Tone: How did you find Ms. Hu?

Pan: I was working on “24th Street,” also set in Chongqing, focusing on the Shibati area. It’s an ancient, traditional neighborhood with old steps and walls — a place that really interested me. But Chongqing was changing rapidly, and Shibati was on the brink of redevelopment, so the area was a bit chaotic. At first, I filmed various people: an old restaurant owner, people in a tea house, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. But I felt something was missing. Then I found Ms. Hu.

Sixth Tone: And what made you decide to make her the focus of this film?

Pan: I was struck by her way of life and by her garden. Despite all the changes around her, she lived much as she always had, unaffected by the rapid transformation. There was so much depth and complexity to her story. She ran her own business — a small hotel — and collected commercial waste, turning it into her own world. Her relationship with her son is also complex. So, through observing her, I was able to explore the lives of the working class and how they’re impacted by real estate development and urbanization.

Sixth Tone: How did your relationship develop over the 10 years shown in the film?

Pan: I found her to be very kind — almost too kind. People tend to take advantage of her, which you can see in the film. She often offered me food and wanted me to stay at her hotel. She could also be a bit overbearing, but that’s just her nature. She would regularly ask for help, whether it was organizing her recyclables or even with money, so I had to be careful not to get too involved in her daily life. But I think that’s just her way of getting what she needs to keep going.

Sixth Tone: And what about her relationship with her son? How did you get him involved, given that his role becomes integral to the story?

Pan: Interestingly, I didn’t even know she had a son at first. One day, she mentioned, “Today is my son’s birthday,” and said she wanted a stranger to wish him well. So, I called him, and I was surprised — his voice sounded very weak, hinting at the struggles he was going through. But he was also very kind. When I entered their lives, they were living apart. But as Shibati’s redevelopment began, they started reconnecting and caring for each other, which ultimately became a key part of the film.

Sixth Tone: What do you hope audiences take away from your film?

Pan: I hope viewers can grasp several things: the bond of motherly love, the living conditions of ordinary people, and the city’s development. There’s a reciprocity between mother and son — at first, the mother supports the son, and in the end, the son supports the mother. I also want audiences to feel the impact of modernization and change, along with the chaos it brings. Everyone, no matter their background, is pursuing a better life. In the city’s development, people are increasingly separated, divided spatially and socially. And there’s Ms. Hu, trying to save her garden and carve out her own space.

Sixth Tone: What first drew you to documentary filmmaking?

Pan: I studied at the Beijing Film Academy with the goal of becoming a commercial film and TV director, but when I returned to my hometown (Wenzhou), I realized that making drama films required a huge investment. At the same time, I began to notice how movie-like everyday life was. Society was changing rapidly, and families were changing with it. I saw an opportunity to build a filmmaking career by telling these real stories and observing the world around me.

Sixth Tone: Have you been thinking about the next project?

Pan: Yes, I’ve already started working on a film about beekeepers — one of the oldest professions. The film will explore how bees work and move across the countryside to produce honey. Once again, modernization plays a big role, as modern agriculture and climate change are impacting their livelihoods and even their chances of survival.

Editor: Apurva.

(Header image: A still from the documentary “Ms. Hu’s Garden.” Courtesy of Pan)