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Screen/Society--Cine-East: East Asian Cinema--"Sparks of Fire"

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Wednesday, April 01, 2015
7:00 pm - 8:50 pm
Introduced by Prof. Xi Lian, Duke Divinity School
Cine-East: East Asian Cinema

Film Screening: "Sparks of Fire" (Hu Jie, 2013, 100 min, China, in Chinese with English subtitles, Color, DVD) / "Sparks of Fire" introduces viewers to survivors of Chairman Mao's "Great Leap Forward" - his campaign to transform the country from an agrarian economy to an industrial one - and the resulting Great Famine. Since information about the famine had been suppressed by the authorities, a number of teachers and students took it upon themselves to publish 'Sparks of Fire', an underground periodical that told the truth about the famine and the realities of life under Chairman Mao. For the great risks they took, nearly everyone affiliated with the periodical, as well as suspected sympathizers, was arrested and imprisoned for lengthy sentences. Decades later, the survivors relate their stories to filmmaker Hu Jie in this no-holds-barred documentary about one of the darkest moments in the history of the Chinese Communist Party.

Contact: Hank Okazaki