Skip to main content

Sheffield DocFest · 2012

Sheffield DocFest 2012

China Now

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

Programme

6 films · 2 reviews

Jump to a film

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Review preview for Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Weiwei is such a fascinating subject that even a documentary that never seems to stray into the experimental is compelling, but white text on a black screen does not a revolution make.

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
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.

(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

Full review

China Heavyweight

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?

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

Circus School (Ma Xi Xue Xiao)

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

(Country: China, United States; Year: 2006; Director: Dingding Ke, Jing Guo)

High Tech, Low Life

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

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

Hometown Boy (Gin Chen Xiao Ze)

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

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 2011; Director: Hung-I Yao; Stars: Liu Xiaodong, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Lao Hongyi)

Japan: Children Of The Tsunami

Review preview for Japan: Children Of The Tsunami

The children tell us in their words and in their silence all we need to know.

Val Kermode · 4 out of 5
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.

(Country: UK, China, Denmark, Canada, Netherlands; Year: 2012; Director: Dan Reed)

Full review