Free China Wins Top Award at the 2012 Awareness Film Festival in West Hollywood: feature length “Obamanation” category (International Political and cultural documentaries and narratives.)
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Top Award Given To
“Free China: The Courage to Believe”
at the West Hollywood “Awareness” Film Festival Sunday May 6th, 2012
A Film by Michael Perlman of “Tibet: Beyond Fear”,
Produced by Kean Wong of New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (NEW YORK,NY –May 7th, 2012) The feature length documentary “Free China: The Courage to Believe”, directed by Michael Perlman and produced by Kean Wong from NTD, has won the top award in its category at the Awareness Film Festival inWest Hollywood over the weekend. It was the film’s premier inLos Angeles, following another top award at the 45th World-Fest Houston Film Festival last month and screenings inPalm BeachFlorida.
The film examines widespread human rights violations inChinathrough the remarkable stories of Jennifer Zeng, a mother and former Communist Party member and Dr. Charles Lee, a Chinese American businessman, who along with hundreds of thousands of peaceful citizens are tortured and subjected to slave labor for their spiritual beliefs in the Falun Gong meditation practice. Its exposure of human rights abuses inChinaearned Free China the top Award in the International Political and Cultural Documentaries and Narrative Category of the Awareness Film Festival, a festival that fielded over 300 entries in 11 categories.
Skye Kelly, Awareness Film Festival Director said “The film is incredibly powerful, incredibly well done. Really speaks to such a cause. I was unaware of the conditions that were still there. I think a lot of people are as well and kind of opened my eyes to a situation and something that I want to be proactive about. So it was very powerful.”
As tens of millions of Chinese citizens quit the Communist Party and its related organizations and more than one hundred thousand protests occur each year insideChina, this timely documentary film provides new information that connects China’s widespread human rights violations with systemic unfair trade practices and state-sanctioned organ harvesting for profit.
The film documents specificUScompanies that profit from enabling the Chinese leadership to suppress dissidents and sheds light on the recent lawsuit filed by the Human Rights Law Foundation against Cisco System for allegedly implementing an elaborate surveillance apparatus that has led to the detention and torture of many Chinese prisoners of conscience. The film also explores how Internet technologies are aiding human rights activists in China and around the world by allowing uncensored information into closed societies. In addition, the film highlights how a re-emergence of traditional Chinese culture and spirituality are helping bring about a new China.
The film is a co-production between World2Be Productions and NTD, a non-for profit, predominantly Chinese and English language TV broadcaster headquartered in New Yorkwith correspondents in over 70 cities worldwide. The film is now an Official Selection, 1 of 6 films in the running for the Free Speech Film Festival’s Grand Award (www.FreeSpeechFilmFestival.org), which will be announced at the awards ceremony on May 16th inPhiladelphia.
Interviewees in the film include:
Dr. Charles Lee, Chinese American Businessman
Jennifer Zeng, Former Chinese Communist Party Member, best selling author of “Witnessing History: One Chinese Woman’s Fight for Freedom”. (Now an Australian citizen)
Hon. David Kilgour, Former Canadian Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific)
Rep. Chris Smith, US Congressman, Senior Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee (Chairman of its Africa, Global Health and Human Rights Subcommittee)
Ethan Gutmann, Author of “Losing The New China” and Contributor for The Asian Wall Street Journal
For more information, please visit: www.FreeChinaMovie.com (under media tab for latest newsclips)
Press Contacts:
Michael Perlman (Director/Producer)
World2Be Productions
Tel: +1 (212) 709-8056
Kean Wong (Producer/Executive Producer)
NTD Television
Tel: +1 (347)-681-3987