Shot over a six-year period (2009-15) mainly in the industrial heartland of south China, this film primarily follows labor activists Peng Jiayong and Deng Xiaoming as they find common ground with workers, helping them to negotiate with local officials and factory owners over wages and working conditions.

Threats, attacks, detention and boredom become part of their daily lives as they struggle to strengthen worker solidarity in the face of pressure from police and their employers. In the process, we see in their words and actions the emergence of a nascent working class consciousness and labor movement in China.

Directed by Wen Hai
Wen Hai studied at the Beijing Film Academy and has since 2001 been active as an independent film director. Among his best known films are Floating Dust (2003), that won him the Georges Beauregard award at the 16th Festival International du Documentaire in Marseille in 2005, Dream Walking (2005), and the We that won the Horizons Special Mention award at the 2008 Venice International Film Festival. He also worked as a cameraman on Wang Bing’s film Three Sisters (2012).

Please note that there will also be a screening of Wen Hai’s 2008 film WE at Boston University on Thursday Nov 16, 2017 at 7pm, with the filmmaker available for Q&A afterwards.