FREE CHINA: THE COURAGE TO BELIEVE Aug 18th, 2012
- 12:30PM FREE CHINA: THE COURAGE TO BELIEVE (13+)
- FOLLOWED BY A Q&A with HON. DAVID KILGOUR
Director: Michael Perlman
Writer(s): Michael Perlman
Producer(s): Kean Wong
Cast: Jennifer Zeng (Best selling author of "Witnessing History - One Woman's Fight for Freedom and Falun Gong),
Hon. David Kilgour (former Canadian Secretary of State - Asia Pacific region),
US Congressman Chris Smith
Synopsis: From the award-winning director of “Tibet: Beyond Fear”, Free China – The Courage to Believe examines widespread human rights violations in China through the remarkable stories of Jennifer Zeng, a mother and former Communist Party member and Dr. Charles Lee, a Chinese American businessman, who along with hundreds of thousands of peaceful citizens are imprisoned, tortured and subjected to slave labor for their spiritual beliefs.
A wealthy, educated Party member, Jennifer, in 1997, began to practice Falun Gong, a combination of Taoism and Buddhism that swept across China in the 1990s. When it was estimated that the number of practitioners exceeded Communist Party membership, more than 70 million strong, the government initiated a brutal crackdown against the spiritual movement that continues to this day.
As political tensions rise in China, this timely documentary film provides new information that connects China’s widespread human rights violations with systemic unfair trade practices and state-sanctioned organ harvesting for profit. The film also highlights how Internet technologies are aiding human rights activists in China and around the world by allowing uncensored information into closed societies and sheds light on how a re-emergence of traditional Chinese culture and spirituality are helping bring about a new China.
