Explore the collection

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.

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.

After retiring from her job as a cadre, Wang Lihong fulfilled what she saw as her civic responsibility to become more active in women’s rights in China, especially the protection of their legal rights. In 2009-2010, she became involved in the “Fujian Netizen Case,” which resulted in the arrest of three human rights activists, who all sought to investigate the death of a 25-year-old women believed to have been murdered in a gang rape by men associated with the local police. Wang Lihong wrote letters to the General Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China every day for nine consecutive days, calling on the authorities to let them go home for the New Year. For this reason, she was criminally detained by the authorities in March 2011 on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." The case was heard by the Beijing, Chaoyang District People's Court on August 12; nearly a month later, on September 9, the court issued a guilty verdict and sentenced Wang Lihong to nine months in prison. The film documents her case, and raises questions about the accountability of the local government and police. Another one of Ai Xiaoming’s films, “Let the Sunshine Reach the Earth,” documents Wang Lihong’s trial process in more detail. This film is in Chinese with Chinese subtitles.

South side Street near Tiananmen Square in Beijing has long been a gathering place for some homeless people as well as petitioners. The director became involved in the homeless relief charity in 2007, and continued to follow the film, which the director finished editing eight years later. The film was selected for the 12th China Independent Film Festival Documentary Competition.

In the fall of 2005, residents of Taishi Village became increasingly frustrated and angered by the sale of land by village officials; hundreds of villagers signed a petition calling for the removal of the village chief. The villagers occupied the village committee’s financial office and expressed their demands through sit-ins and other forms of protests. The government dispatched the police to arrest village activists, but the villagers insisted on starting a formal recall process. The government finally sent a team to the village to verify the signatures for the petition.  <i>The Taishi Village</i> recall incident generated attention from Chinese and foreign media, and caused uneasiness among local government officials. On September 12, 2005,  police arrested dozens of villagers who were participating in a sit-in in the village committee room. Despite the pressure, villagers elected a committee to remove the village committee director. The government then dispatched more men to exert pressure, forcing elected members to withdraw one by one. Hired patrol teams eventually drove lawyers and reporters out of the village. This documentary records the protest scenes and tragic ending of Taishi village’s movement for autonomy, and presents the surging rights consciousness in rural areas in Guangdong. This incident demonstrates villagers’ ability to exercise their right to vote and the government’s inertial approach to grassroots democracy movements.  This documentary is in Chinese with Chinese subtitles.

Due to poverty in rural areas in Henan Province—part of China’s Central Plains—many farmers contracted AIDS by selling their blood. This documentary dives into the lives of these AIDS patients, depicting the manner in which they cope with life, officials’ responses, and the stories of volunteers who helped the infected villagers. The filmmaker visited several villages with high incidence of AIDS, interviewing and recording people’s accounts of how the “plasma economy” arose. This documentary presents the living condition of families and individuals, especially women and children, who contracted AIDS due to blood donation and blood transfusions, and demonstrates the formation of grassroots organizations. This film is in Chinese with both Chinese and English subtitles.