Bring the biggest box of Kleenex you can find to One Child Nation. One Child Nation is a 2019 American documentary film directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang about the fallout of China's one-child policy that lasted from 1979 to 2015. She clicks the lights in another room, and then another, each wallpapered with these signs denoting a baby given life. For the first time in decades the working age population fell in 2012, and China, the world's most populous nation, could be the first country in the world to get old before it gets rich. In the 2019 Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary One Child Nation, Chinese-born filmmakers Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow) and Jialing Zhang expose the devastating consequences of China’s One-Child Policy through the stories of those who lived through it. People talk about leaving a baby girl in the market, only to watch it die from exposure two days later, as simply something that happened, like a melon discarded in search of finer fruit. The sickest child was in one ambulance, while the rest were well enough to be transported in groups of three or four, said Brideaux. They all characterize the policy as “strict,” but maintain that there was nothing that could be done. Rather, it is an exposé of evils of abortion. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2019 where it was awarded the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary Award, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 9, 2019, by … The sense of guilt is palpable. At times, One Child Nation invites comparison to a Holocaust documentary with the language and collective mindset Wang captures. In one of the best scenes I’ve ever seen in a documentary, Wang visits the local midwife who delivered babies in the region for nearly three decades. By marking each life she helped bring into the world, the woman humbly acknowledges the countless others she took from it. On the other hand, virtually every family and neighbour Wang talks with speaks of harsh times. One Child Nation covers a lot of ground, a reflection of the enormity of the policy and its sprawling effects. The accounts convey evil as something normalized through policy and bureaucracy. Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com, The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2016, it has won over twenty awards internationally including two Emmy … presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution Directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang. Update: One Child Nation opens in Toronto at TIFF Lightbox on August 9. Digital issues available via Magzter and Zinio. Visit the POV Hot Docs Hub for more coverage from this year’s festival! Directed by Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang, Jialing Zhang. This powerful and upsetting documentary examines the legacy of a brutal policy that limited couples to a single baby. Please read our statement on the matter here with more to follow. One Child Nation captures a nation’s shared culpability in the loss of a generation. Her case is not unique, but, most tragically, Wang had it better than many girls because she remained with her family; moreover, she stayed alive. Please note that this issue went to print in November with a cover story on Inconvenient Indian. If it stops short of making an explicit political statement, a series of powerful testimonies leaves a harrowing micro-level impression. Nanfu Wang’s opinion notwithstanding, ‘One Child Nation’s’ central message is not a celebration of autonomy. To order He is a member of the Toronto Film Critics Association and the Online Film Critics Society. The film scores some revealing interviews with human traffickers who profited by turning babies into commodities and worked with the government to harvest unwanted babies and help the policy achieve its goals for population control. Filmmaker Nanfu Wang, having recently become a mother and wondering why her birth family was able to have a second child, her brother, during the one-child years, teams with co-director Jialing Zhang to seek answers. Republication or distribution of this content is Wang’s feature debut Hooligan Sparrow was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Award for best documentary feature. The elderly men with whom Wang speaks too frequently uphold their views that it’s better to have a boy than a girl, while even the women rarely betray much remorse over the daughters they lost. Accounts in One Child Nation are simply gut-wrenching as parents, family members, and peers in Wang’s community matter of factly describe the baby girls they abandoned, left for dead, or outright killed so that they could produce a boy to carry on the family name. The credits for One Child Nation note that every Chinese crew member involved in the production was born under the country’s One-Child Policy, and Wang uses this personal element of growing up in a nation reared on population control as the mode of her inquiry. One Child Nation, the Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance 2019, is more horrifying than any screamer you’ll see this year. Propaganda is everywhere, as old slogans and signs offer stern reminders to citizens to do their civic duty. She then invites Wang to tour her home and they enter a room. Wang looks at her own family, which actually had two children since the early restrictions of the policy permitted families in rural areas to double dip if kids were born five years apart. Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. Directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang. One Child Nation is an utterly compelling documentary that examines the consequences of this staunchly enforced ‘social experiment’. Wang, a new mother, returns home after giving birth to her son in the USA where she’s established herself as a filmmaker. This devastatingly powerful film, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year, is an absorbing, eye-opening, and emotionally draining experience. 14A. A version of this review was originally published during the 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival. Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. However, these interviews afford no easy answers. One Child Nation TIFF is a charitable cultural organization with a mission to transform the way people see the world, through film. “Clemency,” directed by Chinonye Chukwu and starring Alfre Woodard, won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Drama […] Support POV Magazine by subscribing today for only $20/year », Point of View Magazine • 392-401 Richmond Street West • Toronto, ON • M5V 3A8 • Canada • (647) 701-8505 • Send us an email, Denise Ho Doc Sings with the Power of a Dissident’s Voice. One Child Nation Sundance-winning documentary on China’s notorious one-child-only population control policy from 1979 to 2015. Have notification of new issues and content delivered to your inbox. rights reserved. Soul-baring and furious, the documentary “One Child Nation” takes a powerful, unflinching look at China’s present through its past. On Wednesday evening, two RCMP vehicles and an ambulance were parked at a large blue house nestled off a dirt road as wet, heavy snow fell. One Child Nation is one of the must-see films of the festival and, undoubtedly, the year. A review of One Child Nation, a documentary by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, opening at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto on Friday, August 9, 2019. Her interviewees speak as if on script, like masses brainwashed by propaganda. One Child Nation is one of the must-see films of the festival and, undoubtedly, the year. Wang reflects on how, despite being the elder sibling, her brother went to college while she worked to support the family. With Nanfu Wang, Zaodi Wang, Zhimei Wang, Tunde Wang. It’s a brutally frank and emotionally raw film that shows the art of documentary at its finest. That scale is chronicled by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s first-person documentary One Child Nation in infuriating, tragic, grisly detail. One Child Nation is now playing in limited release at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Dir. Program: Special Presentations (Canadian Premiere). One Child Nation review – China's monstrous plan to shape the future. It’s a devastating documentary account of China’s “one-child policy,” a brutally Orwellian population-control decree that lasted from 1979 to 2015. When Wang asks, the woman has no idea how many babies she delivered during her tenure. Wang, grateful for the younger brother with whom she shared her life, wonders what the world would be like for her baby son if he could never have a brother or sister. The scene is overwhelmingly powerful as One Child Nation situates one woman’s quest to correct the past within the collective tragedy. Please visit hotdocs.ca for showtimes. Other compelling scenes follow the trails of human trafficking as Wang visits families who adopted children discarded by the One-Child Policy, as well as networks looking to connect people with the families who abandoned him. The pain brings its own rewards, however, as directors Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang explore the wounds left by China’s One-Child Policy, which was introduced in 1982 and overturned in 2015. The doc follows Wang as she returns to her small village, which bears literal and figurative scars of the One Child Policy. Please visit hotdocs.ca for showtimes. Film Review: 'One Child Nation' Sundance: Amazon Buys Grand Jury Prize Winner 'One Child Nation' (EXCLUSIVE) Wang appeared at Hot Docs on … Very few interviewees acknowledge the element of choice in allowing a child to live or die, or to be given away to human traffickers. To order copies of All (Wang’s credits include the Hot Docs hits Hooligan Sparrow and I Am Another You.) When nearly all families could only have one offspring, boys became the coveted prize while having a girl was a fate worse than uncovering three lemons on a lottery ticket. After becoming a mother, a filmmaker uncovers the untold history of China's one-child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment. One Child Nation also screens at Vancouver’s DOXA Film Festival. In 1979, China imposed the nationwide "one-child policy" in order to curb population growth and boost economic development. The sense of absence permeates One Child Nation and Wang’s film is at its most remarkable when the interviewees confront the weight of the past and the sins they’ve collectively committed. 85 minutes. (USA, 85 min.) expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto They turn up appalling stories of abandoned infants, kidnappings, forced sterilizations and abortions, and evidence that thousands of babies are still officially listed as “missing.”. Nanfu Wang, Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor. 89 minutes. The testimony echoes tales of Germans who turned blind eyes to the actions of the Nazis or the party members who contributed to the deaths of Jews simply by administering policy and carrying out their everyday jobs. The film also provides numerous takeaways: the power of propaganda, the danger of complacency in the face of injustice, the perils of putting the interests of a nation … The sensitive subject of China’s One-Child Policy and suspect adoptions that resulted from it are explored in Independent Lens’s upcoming film One Child Nation by director-producer Nanfu Wang. As penance, she tells Wang that she sought to correct the sins of China’s One-Child Policy by devoting her life to curing infertility and helping families conceive. Opens Friday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Included with Prime. See the release date and trailer. Pat has also contributed to outlets including The Canadian Encyclopedia, Paste, That Shelf, Sharp, and Complex. permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com, Sundance-winning documentary on China’s notorious one-child-only population control policy from 1979 to 2015. She turns on the lights to reveal four walls plastered with pennants from floor to ceiling. One Child Nation is a stark, affecting piece that'll leave you boiling-over with fury and amazed at the power of persuasion. Pat Mullen is the publisher of POV Magazine. You can reach him at @cinemablogrpher. However, she gives Wang another number, 50,000 to 60,000, which accounts for the number of abortions she performed, including babies brought to term and euthanized. By Pat Mullen • Published May 1st, 2019Comments, Courtesy of Hot Docs The film keeps the memory of the brutal policy alive while performing a stitch to heal the nation’s pain. PARK CITY, Utah — A fiction film about a prison warden on death row duty and a documentary about the generations affected by China’s’ one-child policy have won the top jury awards at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. ONE CHILD NATION (Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang, U.S.). Search for showtimes and purchase tickets for One Child Nation. This issue sponsored by Crave. Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. Nanfu Wang is an Emmy-nominated and Peabody-winning filmmaker based in New York City. The Official Showtimes Destination brought to you by Amazon Content Services LLC Update: One Child Nation opens in Toronto at TIFF Lightbox on August 9. She points to two pennants on the wall and tells Wang that they’re gifts from parents who had a baby thanks to her aid. This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. piece length 2097152 length 1314600181. name BBC.Storyville.2019.One.Child.Nation.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.mkv. The woman breaks down during the interview and addresses her desire for atonement, telling Wang she fully expects to be judged in her next life. At the same time, the stories of Wang’s brother draw out the pervasive misogyny of the One-Child Policy. The strictly enforced measure prevented an estimated 400 million births and led to a surge of state-mandated abortions and sterilizations, abandoned children and feticides. to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about Amazon Studios has picked up global rights for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival grand jury prize-winning documentary One Child Nation by award-winning filmmaker Nanfu Wang ... Australia and Toronto. One child hurt, man charged after attack on kindergarten north of Toronto Back to video Sgt. One Child Nation also screens at Vancouver’s DOXA Film Festival. Where all those kids are now, however, is a question that haunts the film. He holds a Master’s in Film Studies from Carleton University where his research focused on adaptation and Canadian cinema. Meanwhile, state officials brag about their brave new world. This issue looks at police brutality, Black Lives Matter, No Ordinary Man, the new hybrid drama and more! While one might hesitate to sympathize with a character who exchanged human lives like consumer goods, the doc shows that tens of thousands of children survived through such transactions.