Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Doc/Fest >> 2012 >> China Now

This year's country focus offers a closer look at Chinese lives.

View other Sheffield DocFest Films by strand: Behind The Beats , Best Of British , BFI , Cross Platform , Euro Doc , First Cut , Global Encounters , Howard Street Screen , Queer Screen , Resistance , Retrospective: Dziga Vertov , Shorts , The Habit Of Art , This Sporting Life

Japan: Children Of The Tsunami and Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (Country: US, China; Year: 2011; Director: Alison Klayman; Stars: Changwei Gu, Ai Weiwei, Evan Osnos, Ying Gao, Tehching Hsieh, Huang Hung, Zuzhou Zuoxiao, Yanping Liu, Danqing Chen, Inserk Yang) , Official Site

Renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has garnered international attention as much for his ambitious artwork as his political provocations and increasingly public clashes with the Chinese government.

Full Review

China Heavyweight (Year: 2012; Director: Yung Chang; Writer: Yung Chang; Stars: Zongli He, Yunfei Miao, Moxiang Qi, Zhong Zhao)

In central China, where a coach recruits poor rural teenagers and turns them into Western-style boxing champions, the top students face dramatic choices as they graduate – should they fight for the collective good or for themselves?

Circus School (Ma Xi Xue Xiao) (Country: China, United States; Year: 2006; Director: Dingding Ke, Jing Guo)

Chinese acrobats undertake exhausting and dangerous training as they bid to be the best.

High Tech, Low Life (Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Steve Maing; Stars: Zhou Shuguang, Tiger Temple)

Citizen journalists in China risk the wrath of the authorities to put the news they feel is important on the internet.

Hometown Boy (Gin Chen Xiao Ze) (Country: Taiwan; Year: 2011; Director: Hung-I Yao; Stars: Liu Xiaodong, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Lao Hongyi)

The celebrated artist Liu Xiaodong returns to his hometown to paint once again the people whose portraits first gained him acclaim.

High Tech, Low Life and China Heavyweight

Japan: Children Of The Tsunami (Country: UK, China, Denmark, Canada, Netherlands; Year: 2012; Director: Dan Reed)

Compelling testimony from seven to 10-year-old survivors, reveals how last year’s Japanese tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear accident have changed children's lives forever.

Full Review