Tag: Nanfu Wang

REVIEW: One Child Nation [2019]

Jared Mobarak

I wondered if the thoughts I had were my own or if they were simply learned. Death is inevitable in war. That’s what a former government official who’s still loyal to China’s communist party tells co-director Nanfu Wang during her (and Jialing Zhang‘s) documentary One Child Nation. While the sentiment is correct, I’m not certain she understands why. To this family planner, the war she’s speaking about is one pitting citizens against the horror of over-population. That was the party line and that’s what many Chinese people continue to believe…

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REVIEW: I Am Another You [2017]

Jared Mobarak

“I’ll show you what freedom is like” Documentarian Nanfu Wang left China in 2011 to find the freedom that remaining in her home country never could provide. She came to America—specifically New York City—to study filmmaking before ultimately creating the 2017 Oscars-shortlisted Hooligan Sparrow (which depicted some of the oppression and persecution that she sought to escape). In order to tell that film’s subject’s (Ye Haiyan) story, Wang had to go back and live on the run from Chinese police with little in the way of comfort along their journey…

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REVIEW: Hooligan Sparrow [2016]

Jared Mobarak

“Hey Principal: get a room with me and leave the kids alone!” First-time director Nanfu Wang‘s documentary Hooligan Sparrow proves how a single piece of paper explaining a child’s rights can cause a ripple within a sea of oppression and catalyze justice. That document came from the hand of Wang Yu, a lawyer who followed and supported the titular “Sparrow” (Ye Haiyan) on a journey to expose the heinous acts of the Chinese government. Yu is now in prison and has been for two years without trial. Haiyan and her…

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