These films contain content that may not be appropriate for children.
Eight-year-old Su Min and her mother reside in the slum of an anonymous metropolis in China, making ends meet by cleaning toilets and picking garbage. Su Min dreams of going to school some day. But when she sneaks into an elementary school, she gets hit by a car while running away from security guards. With Su Min’s leg broken, her mother’s only goal is to send her to school, but she will have to pay out-of-city tuition of 30,000 yuan. To fulfill Su Min’s dream, her mother risks her job by sneaking into classrooms and offices to steal money.
Director Biography - Charles Xiuzhi Dong
Charles Xiuzhi Dong is an award-winning director, based in Los Angeles. He received his BFA in Film & TV Production at the New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. His short films screened at numerous film festivals. Namely, After Class (2020): Santa Barbara, Oberhausen, and Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia: winning Best Short Award. His latest documentary film, Anshan Diaries (2021) was in the finalists for the 48th annual Student Academy Awards.
The inspiration for ‘After Class’ came from an infamous scandal few years ago in China, where people would intentionally get hit by a car to scam the driver’s money. I once saw a news article about a single mother who was arrested for forcing her son, who had a broken leg, to run into traffic. It was reported that she did it in order to send her son to school. The boy got hit three times until she was arrested. Although the mother was shunned by the public, yet no one empathized with her situation. I wondered: What would a mother do to fulfill the basic needs of a child? The story is partly based on the news story and partly from my childhood. When my family moved to Shenzhen from the Northeast, my family had to pay a tax every year to send me to public school. When I walked around the city I once called home, kids would run around in slums, collecting water bottles for nickels and dimes in return. I asked them why they aren’t in school. They told me they just aren’t. It was that moment, I knew, one of those kids would become the character of Su Min.
- Year2021
- Runtime15:00
- LanguageChinese
- CountryChina, United States
- DirectorCharles Xiuzhi Dong
- ScreenwriterCharles Xiuzhi Dong
- ProducerCharles Xiuzhi Dong, Branton Choi
These films contain content that may not be appropriate for children.
Eight-year-old Su Min and her mother reside in the slum of an anonymous metropolis in China, making ends meet by cleaning toilets and picking garbage. Su Min dreams of going to school some day. But when she sneaks into an elementary school, she gets hit by a car while running away from security guards. With Su Min’s leg broken, her mother’s only goal is to send her to school, but she will have to pay out-of-city tuition of 30,000 yuan. To fulfill Su Min’s dream, her mother risks her job by sneaking into classrooms and offices to steal money.
Director Biography - Charles Xiuzhi Dong
Charles Xiuzhi Dong is an award-winning director, based in Los Angeles. He received his BFA in Film & TV Production at the New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. His short films screened at numerous film festivals. Namely, After Class (2020): Santa Barbara, Oberhausen, and Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia: winning Best Short Award. His latest documentary film, Anshan Diaries (2021) was in the finalists for the 48th annual Student Academy Awards.
The inspiration for ‘After Class’ came from an infamous scandal few years ago in China, where people would intentionally get hit by a car to scam the driver’s money. I once saw a news article about a single mother who was arrested for forcing her son, who had a broken leg, to run into traffic. It was reported that she did it in order to send her son to school. The boy got hit three times until she was arrested. Although the mother was shunned by the public, yet no one empathized with her situation. I wondered: What would a mother do to fulfill the basic needs of a child? The story is partly based on the news story and partly from my childhood. When my family moved to Shenzhen from the Northeast, my family had to pay a tax every year to send me to public school. When I walked around the city I once called home, kids would run around in slums, collecting water bottles for nickels and dimes in return. I asked them why they aren’t in school. They told me they just aren’t. It was that moment, I knew, one of those kids would become the character of Su Min.
- Year2021
- Runtime15:00
- LanguageChinese
- CountryChina, United States
- DirectorCharles Xiuzhi Dong
- ScreenwriterCharles Xiuzhi Dong
- ProducerCharles Xiuzhi Dong, Branton Choi