Co-presented with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Includes a pre-recorded discussion with Yifei Li (Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, NYU Shanghai) and Judith Shapiro (Director of the Masters in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development, American University), moderated by Jennifer Turner (Director, the Wilson Center's China Environment Forum).

Filmmaker Intro: Jessica Kingdon

An impressionistic portrait of China’s industrial supply chain that reveals the country’s growing class divide through staggering observations of labor, consumerism, and wealth. The documentary portrays capitalism in China across the levels of its operation, from the crudest mine to the most rarefied forms of leisure. Accordingly, the film is structured in three parts, ascending through the levels of the capitalist structure: workers running factory production, the middle class training for and selling to aspirational consumers, and the elites reveling in a new level of hedonistic enjoyment. In traveling up the rungs of China’s social ladder, we see how each level supports and makes possible the next while recognizing the contemporary "Chinese Dream" remains an elusive fantasy for most.

Ascension

An impressionistic portrait of China’s industrial supply chain that reveals the country’s growing class divide through observations of labor, consumerism, and wealth.

Yifei Li is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at NYU Shanghai and Global Network Assistant Professor at NYU. His research concerns both the macro-level implications of Chinese environmental governance for state-society relations, marginalized populations, and global ecological sustainability, and the micro-level bureaucratic processes of China’s state interventions into the environmental realm.&nbsp;<a href="https://dceff.org/filmmaker/li-yifei/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Full bio here</a>. Professor Judith Shapiro is the director of the Masters in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development for the School of International Service at American University. She was one of the first Americans to live in China after U.S.-China relations were normalized in 1979, and taught English at the Hunan Teachers’ College in Changsha, China.&nbsp;<a href="https://dceff.org/filmmaker/shapiro-judith/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Full bio here</a>. Jennifer Turner has served as Director of the Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum for nearly two decades. She is a widely-quoted expert on U.S.-China environmental cooperation as well as climate-related challenges and governance issues facing the world’s most populous country.&nbsp;<a href="https://dceff.org/filmmaker/turner-jennifer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Full bio here</a>.

Ascension: Panel Discussion

Featuring Yifei Li (NYU Shanghai), Judith Shapiro (American University), & Jennifer Turner (The Wilson Center)

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All-Virtual Festival Passes

DCEFF30 ran March 17-27. Screenings have now ended. Stay tuned for future screening announcements. 

The 30th Anniversary Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital will be all-virtual March 17-27. Featuring dozens of screenings and discussions -- many FREE and available to audiences around the globe! Opens with Sundance Favorite FIRE OF LOVE and an interview with Dr. Jane Goodall.

Here are the LIVE Q&As scheduled for DCEFF30! Can't make it? No sweat. These Q&A livestreams will be available for on-demand viewing immediately after they conclude. Note: films will not be broadcast live. They are available to watch separately from the live discussion.