This will win next year's U.S. Academy Award for best foreign film, or maybe best documentary, or both.
Directed and narrated by former CCTV journalist Chai Jing, we are taken on a high-budget journey to the source of "PM2.5" (fine particulate matter) air pollution which afflicts many Chinese cities, especially in the winter. We are shown an operation on the lungs of an emphysema patient who never smoked; and an animation of micro-particulate effects on the bloodstream that's not unlike the old Bell Science film, "Hemo the Magnificent." The film explores the politics of China's big oil and big coal vs. the nascent Chinese environmental movement, which are exactly like the politics of the U.S. oil and coal industries vs. the U.S. EPA, except China's industries are arguably more corrupt. China has strong environmental laws, but up to now has only rarely enforced them. Jing travels to far-flung places such as London and Long Beach, California -- where a Chinese-speaking California Highway Patrol officer tests truck tailpipe emissions at a roadside checkpoint, and issues $1000 fix-it tickets.
Most of the documnentary is presented by Jing before a live audience, TED-talk style. The film begins and ends with Jing concerned about her daughter's having to wear a face mask to filter out PM2.5 particles. She urges the audience to call 12369, the Chinese equivalent of 1-800-CUT-SMOG, if they witness air pollution.
As I write this, the Chinese government has just banned the film, but not before hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens were able to view it. The English-subtitle version remains available to U.S. viewers on YouTube.
Don't let the subtitles dissuade you from seeing this important and entertaining film.
Directed and narrated by former CCTV journalist Chai Jing, we are taken on a high-budget journey to the source of "PM2.5" (fine particulate matter) air pollution which afflicts many Chinese cities, especially in the winter. We are shown an operation on the lungs of an emphysema patient who never smoked; and an animation of micro-particulate effects on the bloodstream that's not unlike the old Bell Science film, "Hemo the Magnificent." The film explores the politics of China's big oil and big coal vs. the nascent Chinese environmental movement, which are exactly like the politics of the U.S. oil and coal industries vs. the U.S. EPA, except China's industries are arguably more corrupt. China has strong environmental laws, but up to now has only rarely enforced them. Jing travels to far-flung places such as London and Long Beach, California -- where a Chinese-speaking California Highway Patrol officer tests truck tailpipe emissions at a roadside checkpoint, and issues $1000 fix-it tickets.
Most of the documnentary is presented by Jing before a live audience, TED-talk style. The film begins and ends with Jing concerned about her daughter's having to wear a face mask to filter out PM2.5 particles. She urges the audience to call 12369, the Chinese equivalent of 1-800-CUT-SMOG, if they witness air pollution.
As I write this, the Chinese government has just banned the film, but not before hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens were able to view it. The English-subtitle version remains available to U.S. viewers on YouTube.
Don't let the subtitles dissuade you from seeing this important and entertaining film.
