‘One Child Nation’ Director Seeks Gap Funding for Film on China’s Social Control System
variety.comLise Pedersen Among the filmmakers taking center stage at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival’s financing and co-production platform, CPH:FORUM, is China’s Jialing Zhang with her new project “The Total Trust” (a working title).Her previous doc, “One Child Nation” (pictured), which she produced and co-directed with Nanfu Wang, picked up the Grand Jury Prize in Sundance in 2019.Shot in China, “The Total Trust” explores the Chinese government’s digital social control system – the most sophisticated in the world – and the effect it is having on the population.Its producers say most of the filming is complete and they will be seeking to fill the €350,000 ($385,000) funding gap out of the film’s total budget of €1 million ($1.1 million) at CPH:FORUM.
Described by its makers as “a cautionary tale of technology in the hands of unchecked power,” the film lends a voice to those who stand in defiance of it.“It’s about an all-seeing society and the whole social experiment that’s taking place in China,” producer Knut Jaeger of German outfit Filmtank told Variety. “It is the most advanced country technologically speaking, but it’s not just a film about China: we’re not China bashing.
We see that as a mirror of [what’s unfolding in] Western society: it’s taking place here, too.”Protagonists of “The Total Trust” include Zeng, who discovers that cameras have been installed in her house, her phone tapped, travel plans monitored and her social account blocked.
This happens after she starts advocating for the release of her husband Hu, a human rights lawyer who has been detained without trial since late 2020 for his work defending victims of sexual harassment and gender equality.While some protagonists’ identity will be.
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