Wenhai Huang

Between 2009 and 2015, Wen Hai followed the lives of workers and worker activists in southern China, the world’s factory. His astonishing film gives nameless workers a face, shows their vital sense of justice and resistance to owners who are only interested in profits – and how they escape the role of victim.

Shot over an eight-year period (2007-2015), this documentary film aims to present women’s struggle in the private and public spheres, both in China and Hong Kong. It offers a view into the lives of female factory workers, artists, rights activists, and intellectuals – whom deal with political violence, sexual harassment, online bullying, long-term separation from family, arbitrary treatment by transnational factory management, and/or poverty in their home villages.

More than 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war, the greatest displacement since World War II. Filmmaker Ai Weiwei examines the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact. Over the course of one year in 23 countries, Weiwei follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretch across the globe, including Afghanistan, France, Greece, Germany and Iraq.

The masterful new documentary from Wang Bing is an intimate, observational portrait of a peasant family who eke out a humble existence in a small village set against the stunning mountain landscapes of China's Yunnan province.

Young students in Hebei province preparing to enter middle and high school are sent to a miltary training camp.

We see people crawling on the ground like ants in a world of giant steel and cold, a desolate world with no earthly atmosphere.

The voices in this film are all conscientious citizens doing their utmost to improve the state of their nation. Their ethos is: “Where affairs of state are concerned, we cannot stand idly by and watch.” And yet the reward for their concern is a lifetime spent in political turmoil, years of periodic intimidation and surveillance. This film illustrates the perils of seeking freedom in a time of darkness, in a time when critique requires transformation. It depicts the harsh realities faced by three generations of activists—young, middle-aged and elderly– and allows us to better understand their anxieties, hopes, despairs and above all, their persistence.