THE OBSERVER Trailer

A film by Rita Andreetti / A dGenerate Films Release After repeated threats from authorities, the Beijing Independant Film Festival was shut down. The government wouldn’t tolerate their showing Spark, an incendiary historical documentary that revealed human rights violations during The Great Leap Forward. News of the festival’s cancellation reverberated around the world. Who was the artist whose work had pushed the government past the edge of tolerance? Away from the limelight, dissident artist Hu Jie has managed to make more than 30 documentaries. Films like Though I Am Gone and Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul are vital to understanding Chinese history and society and preserving memory of its past. Widely recognized as the first artist to dare talk about the Great Famine, the labor camps and the Cultural Revolution in an unfiltered way, Hu Jie is considered China’s first historical documentary-maker&emdash;even though he’s blacklisted. Featuring lush photography and revea