Warriors of Qiugang

“Warriors of Qiugang” (2011)

Director: Ruby Yang

Country: China

Run time: 39 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

Like many villages in China’s industrial heartland, Qiugang — a hamlet of nearly 1,900 people in Anhui province — has long suffered from runaway pollution from nearby factories. In Qiugang’s case, three major enterprises with little or no pollution controls churned out chemicals, pesticides and dyes, turning the river black, killing fish and wildlife, and filling the air with foul fumes that burned residents’ eyes and throats and sickened children. The pollution became so egregious that in 2007, residents — working with a fledgling environmental group, Green Anhui — began to do something about it. Their efforts attracted the attention of Chinese-American filmmaker Ruby Yang, who with cinematographer Guan Xin and longtime collaborator Thomas Lennon, spent three years chronicling the struggle of Qiugang’s increasingly emboldened population to curb the pollution that was poisoning them in their homes, schools and fields. Nominated for best documentary (short subject), 2011 Academy Award.

FRIDAY, APRIL 12. 1:00 PM (ballroom B)

Special introduction by Denggao Zhang. Green Anhui Org and Yiren Wang, IMEP