"Up the Yangtze" Premieres in New York

by P.O.V. | April 25, 2008 at 11:43 am

802 views | 12 Recommendations | 12 comments

Up the Yangtze, a new documentary about the impact of the Three Gorges Dam project in China by Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang, opens in New York City at the IFC Center tomorrow. The film has won numerous awards on the festival circuit and received much critical acclaim for its moving and powerful portrayal of contemporary China byfollowing the rise of the Yangtze River and the fates of two young people working on a luxury cruise ship on the river.

Last night, a special screening of the film was held at the Rubin Museum, which holds a small but comprehensive collection of Himalayan Art. As the lights went down in the packed theater, I couldn't help but notice that actor Colin Firth had slipped into the row behind me! It's not often that you see celebrities at documentary screenings, but the New York audience played it cool. No one gawked (except for me, and even then, discreetly), and Mr. Firth, I hope, was free to be carried along the Yangtze by the power of the film, just like the rest of us.

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Jarrett Martineau

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:59 on April 25th, 2008

P.O.V., thanks for this. I finally had the opportunity to see the film, in a theatre, here in Vancouver. It is breathtaking, sad, and absolutely worth watching.

I encourage everyone to check out this important and timely look at the troubled and rapidly-industrializing face of contemporary China.

messiahy

at 21:31 on April 25th, 2008

In the late afternoon the Yangtze has a surreal feel to it. The sun peeps through the haze, and you sit on the deck of your boat in the humid air and try to convince yourself that you really are floating along the Yangtze River, where Ping the duck had his famous adventures...

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cynthia yoo

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 21:33 on April 25th, 2008

P.O.V., Just going through some of the photos on the Yangtze it's amazing to see how beautiful it is. But many photos also highlight the environmental damage that has ravaged the region.

matt_cohn

at 22:19 on April 25th, 2008

I will never forget my trek through the Tiger Leaping gorge, even if such a display of this world's beauty becomes another victim of our hubris...humans sure like water, don't they?

tedesco57

at 23:54 on April 25th, 2008

An outing on a rowing boat up the Shennong, a tributary to the mighty Yangtze

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ianwhitfield1978

at 17:22 on April 26th, 2008

It is a very beautiful area even though much of the scenery has already been submerged. On the trip down the river, on one of the not so luxury cockroach-ridden boats, we could see houses and farmland that were still inhabited and were below the 175M markers. One of the women who worked on our tour boat used to farm land next to the Yangtze. She was forced off her land and now has to work in terrible conditions getting only 3 or 4 hours sleep a night on the floor of the boat. She does this continuously for 3 months as the boat goes back and forth past the land she used to own.

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mebrooks29

at 19:08 on April 26th, 2008

This is such a breathtaking part of the world and it is so sad that so much of it will be and already is, underwater forever altering the environment of this area.

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Lazy Aussie

at 05:11 on April 27th, 2008

Haze across China, city and country 9 days out of 10 the air is grey. Here at Wuhan building rubble from the vast demolition sites add to the coal and car pollution.

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Andy Parsons

at 03:39 on April 28th, 2008

I think the whole project highlights Chinese Govermental short-sightedness.

Not only is a beautiful part of the world being lost forever (a truly beautiful part of the world), but this project is going to catastrophically effect the environment and cultures which surround the Yangtze.

jasonpearce

at 08:29 on April 28th, 2008

As you can see from this video, this is a very large dam. At this scale and distance, workers on the dam are barely discernible. This view is of one section of the enormous lock our ship passed through. They will soon be adding an elevator to lift smaller ships.

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meiyu

at 10:26 on April 28th, 2008

First bend of Yangtze in Yunnan.

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bukephalas

at 10:23 on May 19th, 2008

This is a view from above the docks at Chongqing. From here I boarded a Chinese cruise ship and sailed down the Yangtze to Lichan. I went through the 3 Gorges just before the 3 Gorges Dam became fully operational, so although the water had risen substantially, it was not yet at the levels seen today.

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