Xu Xin’s film “Dao Lu” (China 2012) offers an exclusive “in camera” encounter with Zheng Yan, an 83 year-old veteran of the Chinese Red Army, who calmly relates how he has navigated his country’s turbulent history over three-quarters of a century.Born to a wealthy family in a foreign concession, Yan joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1941 because he sincerely believed in the socialist project, and in its immediate capacity to free China from the Japanese yoke and eradicate deep-rooted corruption.
A documentary about Caroll Spinney who has been Sesame Street's Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since 1969. At 78-years-old, he has no intention of stopping.
An artist's sculpture is burnt down, a protester is charged with a criminal case, and a democracy movement is violently attacked. In the United States, three Chinese dissidents fight for democracy against a superpower through art, petition, and grassroots organizing, but not even exile is safe.
How do you reconcile a commitment to non-violence when faced with violence? Why do the poor often seem happier than the rich? Must a society lose its traditions in order to move into the future? These are some of the questions posed to His Holiness the Dalai Lama by filmmaker and explorer Rick Ray. Ray examines some of the fundamental questions of our time by weaving together observations from his own journeys throughout India and the Middle East, and the wisdom of an extraordinary spiritual leader. This is his story, as told and filmed by Rick Ray during a private visit to his monastery in Dharamsala, India over the course of several months. Also included is rare historical footage as well as footage supplied by individuals who at great personal risk, filmed with hidden cameras within Tibet.
This documentary recounts the experiences of people on the ground in the earliest days of the novel coronavirus and the way two countries dealt with its initial spread, from the first days of the outbreak in Wuhan to its rampage across the United States.
In China more people are on death row than the rest of the world combined. The children of the convicts are often left alone, stigmatized and living in the streets. Grandma Zhang, as the kids call her, is a former prison guard who has founded an orphanage in Nanzhao.
China is the only civilization that continues to hold sway throughout its entire territory as defined by its ancient borders. This three-part series retraces almost 2,000 years of Chinese ancient history – a period that holds vital clues to understanding how this powerful nation was built. Many people forget that during the heyday of the Christian era, China was already a highly developed country. In this fascinating program we will focus on the heart of one of the most mysterious countries in the world. Witness the evolution of civilization and visit the places where the dignitaries are buried, also visit the mausoleum of China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang Di.
As a decades-old state-run aeronautics munitions factory in downtown Chengdu, China is being torn down for the construction of the titular luxury apartment complex, director Jia Zhangke interviews various people affiliated with it about their experiences.
The true story of the seven weeks that changed China forever. On June 4, 1989, pro-democracy demonstrations were violently and bloodily repressed. Thousands of people died, but the basis for China's future was definitely planted.
Could our mounting modern problems have ancient solutions? Travel to the depths of China to find out.
Crocodile in the Yangtze follows China's first Internet entrepreneur and former English teacher, Jack Ma, as he battles US giant eBay on the way to building China's first global Internet company, Alibaba Group. An independent memoir written, directed and produced by an American who worked in Ma's company for eight years, Crocodile in the Yangtze captures the emotional ups and downs of life in a Chinese Internet startup at a time when the Internet brought China face-to-face with the West. Crocodile in the Yangtze draws on 200 hours of archival footage filmed by over 35 sources between 1995 and 2009. The film presents a strikingly candid portrait of Ma and his company, told from the point of view of an “American fly on a Chinese wall” who witnessed the successes and the mistakes Alibaba encountered as it grew from a small apartment into a global company employing 16,000 staff.
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.
After starting a family of his very own in the United States, a gay filmmaker documents his loving, traditional Chinese family's process of acceptance.
China's top drama academy stages the American musical "Fame," China's first official collaboration with Broadway, as the graduation showcase for its senior class. During the eight-month rehearsal, five students compete for roles, struggle with pressure from family and authority, and prepare to graduate into China's corrupt entertainment industry.
This documentary from 1980 depicts a factory community in China where over 6000 workers process, spin and weave raw cotton into 90 million yards of high-quality cloth per year. Also seen are the workers' residential, social, recreational and educational facilities, all located on factory property. The film presents an engrossing study of a lifestyle that is very different from that of the Western world.
The story of a six year old boy from Phoenix, Arizona whose dreams of becoming a Kungfu master lead him to the birthplace of martial arts - the legendary Shaolin Temple in China. His father must now face a heartbreaking decision and follow his son to China leaving the mother behind in America... a choice few parents could ever imagine.
October 1st, 1957. Dusk descends on Tiananmen Square, Peking. Fireworks crackle light across the night sky, above a city alive with National Day festivities and celebrations. Two intrepid New Zealand film-makers - Rudall and Ramai Te Miha Hayward - are there, documenting the life and times of communist China. The distinction of being the first English speaking foreigners to film unfettered in communist China was significant. The invitation to visit China was facilitated through the New Zealand China Friendship Society. They filmed in Canton, Shanghai, Peking (Beijing) and Wuhan. It was a small window of opportunity for Westerners to gaze on a country that was largely a mystery to the outside world since 1949. The unfortunate irony was that two of the documentaries; “Wonders of China”, and “Inside Red China”, were considered to be communist propaganda, and were not distributed outside of New Zealand.
An unsettling and eye-opening Wall Street horror story about Chinese companies, the American stock market, and the opportunistic greed behind the biggest heist you've never heard of.
The absorbingly cinematic Ascension explores the pursuit of the “Chinese Dream.” Driven by mesmerizing—and sometimes humorous—imagery, this observational documentary presents a contemporary vision of China that prioritizes productivity and innovation above all.
Migrant workers, factory bosses and nightclub dancers try to carve out a slice of the pie in the city the dollar store built. But China is changing. Selling cheap junk isn't what it used to be.
This telefilm is based on "Chorer Master Computer Engineer" by Rahitul Islam. A fresh engineer graduate from Tangail decides to leave his girlfriend, career and metropolitan life behind to teach students and farmers in his home village.
Based on the story of Leonid Andreev. St. Petersburg, 1905. A poor student moves to the estate of a wealthy aristocrat to become his son's teacher, and tries to unravel the crazy secrets that the owner of the house keeps.
The film is based on real events and tells about a major accident that occurred during the construction of another Leningrad metro station in the spring of 1974.
Chantilly Bridge reunites a group of lifelong, steadfast friends who are still – in their later years -- chasing their dreams, fighting injustices, and sticking up for their convictions. The women lay bare their lives and deal with important issues that impact all women with humor, humility, humanity, and love. No topic escapes the razor-like wit and insight of these women: equality, sex, menopause, mortality, feminism, parenthood, careers, love, and even “me-too” moments.
Studio head Joe Mulholland promises his dying producer and mentor, Saul Gritz, to adapt a popular sex manual into a film, despite his better judgment. Unable to figure out how to turn the nonfiction book into a narrative movie, Mulholland enlists the services of Herb Dorman, a screenwriter of popular romantic films with a bad marriage, and volatile director Sid Spokane to help him create a movie.
Enric Marco, ex-president of the Spain’s main deportees’ association, embarks on a car trip to Germany, a demythologising journey into his past. Two years earlier, a historian had shown that Enric Marco wasn’t the member of the Resistance he had claimed to be, and that he’d made up the stories of his experiences in a concentration camp that he had been recounting on television for years. Now, Marco retraces the route of his 1941 train journey as part of a convoy of workers sent by Franco to Hitler, in the middle of the Second World War.
Bjørn-Erik was a 19 year old devoted Christian. When he determined that he was gay who decided to kill himself rather than living a "dirty and sinful" life. Through excerpts from his diary we learn that he didn't seek any guidance and he got none. His friends and family are interviewed as well as a gay Lutheran couple and some Christian fundamentalists.
The East Side of Los Angeles, known for its drugs, violence and corruption is about to go to war. This Time, however, it's between two childhood friends who are forced to face a secret so deep that it has kept them apart for 15 years. Luis Ruiz, a former gang leader, is on the verge of getting out but his younger brother, Carlos, will not allow it. An innocent kid with a chip on his shoulder, Carlos dishonors the drug lord Pablo Mendecello, forcing a stream of events that lead to the ultimate face off. To make matters worse Luis falls in love with Tess McKay, an LAPD cop whose sole mission is to end the gang war. Luis must choose between two worlds: one where his family lives, or the other where his future lies.
You won’t find the name Patrick Q.F. Barr on any leaderboard. But he is a golfer worth knowing nonetheless. His course is lower Manhattan, his clubs are borrowed and his balls are… well, they’re milk cartons stuffed with newspapers. In this 30 for 30 Short directed by Christopher Andre’ Marks, you’ll hear the story of “Tiger Hood” in his own words—about how golf saved him from despair and helped people recognize his other talent, photography. Truer words were never spoken than when Patrick says, “Don’t cry over spilled milk.”
Lefty-a hard working, light hearted man is looking to make a decent buck. But when a simple bet goes horribly wrong, Lefty is stuck between a rock and gangster who's dead set on collecting his money.
A man comes to pick up his son at his ex wife's house, just like every weekend.
Interviewing cast and crew behind the scenes on UFO, this documentary lifts the lid on Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's first venture into live action science fiction.