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Following the release of the documentary Our Children, this film shifts focus to ’s post-earthquake efforts to investigate and defend the rights of families who lost children in the disaster, as well as the immense obstacles and pressure he encountered in the process. In late August 2008, after the 100-day mourning period for the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, rescue forces began to withdraw and media coverage of the school collapse deaths ceased, even though many families still had not received a satisfactory explanation as to why so many schools had collapsed while other buildings remained intact. Due to contradictory official statements, selective disclosure of information, and deliberate concealment from the public, environmental activist Tan Zuoren, along with Xie Yihui and local volunteers in Chengdu, launched an independent citizens’ investigation into the victims of the 5.12 earthquake during the winter of 2008. They believed that only those directly affected—namely, the parents—could provide truthful and reliable accounts. They traveled across residential districts, searching for the causes of the school building collapses, recording the experiences of local residents, and tallying the number of victims. Through autumn and winter, Tan and Xie journeyed across 80 townships in 10 of the worst-hit counties, covering over 3,000 kilometers. Just before the one-year anniversary of the earthquake, they published their findings online, marking the first independently conducted citizen investigation into the school tragedies of the Sichuan quake. During the investigation, Tan Zuoren stated, “There’s a high chance I’ll be arrested and sentenced to three or five years. I’ve already mentally prepared myself for that. But in the face of such a massive disaster, if no one stands up to speak, if we all shrink back like turtles hiding in their shells—then I’d rather spend those three or five years not seeing anyone.” As Tan anticipated, he eventually lost his freedom. His wife and daughter waited for the results of his trial. Meanwhile, in Beijing, artist Ai Weiwei initiated a broader citizen movement. New volunteers arrived in Sichuan to compile the names of the children who had died. This film follows their footsteps, documenting their motivations, determination, and the many forms of obstruction they encountered. As Ai Weiwei wrote in a blog post before starting, there were only two scenarios in which he would stop the investigation: either he was no longer alive, or the list was complete. This film is an incomplete record of the citizen investigation. It also served as one of the pieces of testimony submitted to the court during Tan Zuoren’s trial for “inciting subversion of state power.”

On February 9, 2010, Tan Zuoren was tried in the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court for the crime of inciting subversion against the state. Ai Xiaoming and her team recorded the three days before and after the verdict, the mindsets of Tan Zuoren’s friends and relatives, and how the lawyers carried out their work. This film is in Chinese with Chinese subtitles.

The year 2003 was known as the birth of the Weiquan—the rights defense–movement, which was marked by the Sun Zhigang incident in Guangzhou. At the same time, a campaign began to get justice for Huang Jing, a teacher from Hunan who was sexually assaulted and killed by her boyfriend. The campaign involved the victim’s family, netizens, feminist scholars and activists, and lasted for several years. This documentary records the process of Huang Jing’s case from filing to post-judgement, and analyzes the broader issue of sexual violence against women in China. The films in this series are in Chinese with Chinese subtitles.

Wang Lihong is a Beijing netizen, civilian journalist, and public service volunteer. Wang was accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for supporting three netizens in Fujian. On August 12, 2011, the case was heard for the first time in the Wenyuhe Court of the People's Court of Chaoyang District, Beijing. This film includes interviews with Wang Lihong's relatives, friends, defense lawyers and netizens, and records the historical scene of onlookers in the courts. Ai Xiaoming’s film “Postcard,” also released in 2011, elaborates Wang Lihong’s activism in broader strokes, while “Let the Sunshine Reach the Earth” focuses on the process of her trial. This film is in Chinese with Chinese subtitles.

In June 2010, scholars and activists Xu Zhiyong, Teng Biao, Wang Gongquan, Li Xiongbing, Li Fangping, Xu Youyu and Zhang Shihe (Tiger Temple) initiated the signing of the “Citizen's Pledge”, which called on Chinese citizens to “abide by principles of democracy, and the rule of law, safeguard the rights and livelihood of the people, and promote good governance”. On May 29, 2012, Dr. Xu Zhiyong, one of the founders of the pro-democracy movement “Open Constitution Initiative” (Gongmeng), published an article entitled “China's New Citizen Movement”, officially launching the <a href=“https://web.archive.org/web/20121226221847/http://biweekly.hrichina.org/article/1575”>“New Citizen Movement”</a>. The goal of the New Citizens Movement is a free China governed by democracy and rule of law, a vibrant civil society, and a new national spirit of “freedom, justice, and love”. It aims to promote political and social transformation from authoritarianism to constitutionalism, and Chinese people will be treated as citizens, not subjects of the ruling class. Activities of the New Citizen Movement include advocating for equal rights in education, public disclosure of officials' properties, and organizing local citizen gatherings. (For more information on the New Citizens Movement, see the <a href=“https://cmcn.org/”>Chinese Citizens Movement </a>website. Organizers and participants in the New Citizens Movement have been subjected to repression and persecution. On July 5, 2012, several hundred parents gathered at the Ministry of Education's Petitioning Office, displaying banners and chanting slogans demanding that the government protect migrant children’s right to education, before being stopped by police, who also beat them. As a result of this and other advocacy activities, New Citizens Movement organizers Xu Zhiyong, Zhao Changqing, and Ding Jiaxi were arrested in 2013 and charged with gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place, and their cases were heard for the first time at different levels of court in Beijing on January 22, 2014, on the eve of the Chinese New Year. All were sentenced to jail. This documentary includes footage of the parents' protest in July 2012, and outside the courthouse at Xu Zhiyong's trial on January 22, 2014, as well as interviews with family members of the arrested activists, their lawyers, and academics, and supporters of the movement.On the day of his trial, hundreds of people showed up outside the courthouse in support, invoking Article 35 of the Constitution to point out that the case was an unfair trial that violated citizens' freedom of speech and expression. In the film, Xu Zhiyong says in an interview that the New Citizens Movement wants to solve social issues through judicial processes, and that he believes it is important to take into account the perspectives of different stakeholders. Even with such a moderate stance, the authorities still harshly suppressed him and portrayed him as an enemy of the state. Scholar Guo Yuhua commented on the case : “If we wait for a ready-made civil society, there is none. Activism is to open up space where there is none, to create gaps where there are no gaps, and to expand it gradually.”

People from all over China rush to the scene of China's trial of Bo Xilai, the former Chongqing Party Secretary of the Communist Party of China. The trial took place in August 2013 at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court in Shandong Province. Reporter Liu Xiangnan captured the scene.

This documentary records the stories of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The narrators mainly consist of the parents of students who fell victim to the earthquake, and the film is interspersed with comments from media workers, independent scholars, internet authors, geologists, and environmental protection and legal workers. They expressed their views on the Sichuan earthquake from different perspectives. This film is in Chinese with Chinese subtitles.