Shared Darkness

It’s safe to say that Michael Perlman, the director of the new documentary Free China: The Courage to Believe, won’t be receiving the red carpet treatment any time soon in the glorious People’s Republic of China. (Hell, even simply attaching my name to anything other than a vicious attack review may bring about a mysterious denial-of-service incident on this site.) A damning nonfiction look at the human rights abuses of the world’s most populous country as filtered specifically through the oppression of Falun Gong practitioners and two enormously sympathetic, steel-spined subjects, Perlman’s film makes a case for the indomitability of the human spirit and the eventual futility of unreasonable autocratic will.

Free China is so interesting (and important, plus in an odd way reassuring) not merely because it exposes some of the specifics of China’s abysmal human rights record, but because it also ties this issue in with unfair and unjust labor practices. The stories — both individually and on a macro level — are a travesty, certainly, but if there’s a cold comfort to be found it’s in the long-game absurdity of the Chinese government’s attempts to build a Great Internet Firewall, whereby it can keep out all influences and voices around the world it deems inappropriate, and crash it at a moment’s notice to stifle any gathering storm of protest. This may work for a generation, maybe two. But human nature trends toward curiosity, and freedom. It’s a losing strategy in the long term, especially as international consensus pools in areas unattached to China’s opinions. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. For more information on the movie and how to take up the banner of its social cause, meanwhile, click here to visit the film’s website. (World2Be Productions, unrated, 61 minutes)