One Says No

A remote village in southwest China is haunted by traces of its cultural past while its residents piece together their existence. Zhiziluo is a town barely clinging to life. Tucked away in a rugged corner of Yunnan Province, Lisu and Nu minority villagers squat in the abandoned halls of this remote former Community county seat. Divided into three parts, this epic documentary takes an intimate look at its varied cast of characters, bringing audiences face to face with people left behind by China's new economy. A father-son duo of elderly preachers argue over the future of their village church. Two young lovers face a break-up over harsh financial realities. A twelve year-old boy, abandoned by his family, scavenges the hillside to feed himself.

Escaping a dubious past, Liang Renwei and his pregnant girlfriend Pomegranate return to his home village. The couple plans to remain until the child is born, then see what opportunities arise. While he takes a job enforcing the One Child Policy quotas, she begins to see faceless ghosts of the past.

Street Life documents the lives of Chinese migrants in Shanghai, one of the world’s largest and most vibrant cities, now symbolic of China’s economic might. The film centers on Nanjing Road, one of China’s oldest commercial streets and today a popular destination for tourists and moneyed Chinese. The street has also become a Mecca for uprooted and homeless Chinese, who make ends by collecting garbage and recyclables. These characters and their stories are the focus of the film. The central character in Street Life is a migrant known as “Black Skin.” Black Skin faces numerous pressures in the course of the film, including police violence. In the end, these pressures are too much for him to bear and he goes mad. Black Skin’s story intersects with those of fellow bottle collectors, enterprising thieves and even a young boy who has been abandoned.

Explores the growing African migrant community in Southern China through the turbulent history of a church founded by a Nigerian missionary.

It was February 2012, on a crowded Spring Festival train traveling from Guangzhou to Dazhou, Sichuan. A green passenger train was packed with travelers. A railway police officer walked through one overcrowded carriage after another, keeping watch over the passengers. During the patrol, the officer crossed paths with a young woman. Then, the crowded carriages gradually became empty. The train picked up speed. No one knew where it was truly headed.