ASCENSION

A shocking film about the contemporary Chinese dream, an immersion in the aspirations that guide the People’s Republic, between political contradictions and consumerist excesses.

Academy Award (final five), Best Documentary – Academy, Los Angeles

Best Documentary – Tribeca Film Festival, New York

Honorable mention – Denver Film Festival

Winner – Hamptons International Film Festival

PreseWielding an inquisitive camera and crafting a kaleidoscope of vignettes, Jessica Kingdon’s debut feature film is a visceral exploration of contemporary China’s identity and the paradoxes of economic progress. Deftly observing factory workers create everything from binoculars to sex dolls, the film tracks the collective pursuit of professional success in a communist society. With pathos and humor, Kingdon captures the intense physical demands, aggressive corporate policies, and creative collaboration that fuel the ever-expanding labor force of the People’s Republic of China. The filmmaker leaves you to ponder the costs of commodification while also shining a light on the resiliency of the human spirit

with

Jessica Kingdon – Sino-American director and producer based in New York. Ascension is her first feature film and comes from the trip to China that the author made to make the short Commodity City (2017).

Lijia Zhang – 1964, Nanjing. She is a Chinese writer and journalist. She defines herself as “a communicator between China and the world”, she lectures all over the world on contemporary China, including Stanford University, Harvard University and the University of Sydney. Her book Socialism is great – Memoirs of a worker from the new China (2009) was published in Italy. Her most successful novel, Lotus (2018), has been translated into many languages.

Giada Messetti – originally from Gemona del Friuli (Udine). She’s a sinologist, she’s lived for a long time in China, where she wrote for “Diario” and collaborated with the correspondence offices of Rai, “Corriere della Sera” and “la Repubblica”. She returned to Italy in 2011, she worked for several television and radio broadcasts of Rai and La7. She’s currently the author of the Rai3 in-depth program «#CartaBianca» and she is responsible for a Chinese news column on Rai Radio1. Together with Simone Pieranni, she conceived and hosted the podcast on China Risciò, available on the main streaming platforms. For Mondadori she published Nella Testa del Dragone (2020). Her latest book, just out, is called La Cina è già qui.

Pio D’Emilia – journalist and Yamatologist. He’s the East Asia correspondent for SkyTg24. He also collaborates with some Italian and foreign newspapers: Espresso, Avvenire, Tokyo Shinbun, to name a few. In 2018 he dedicated the documentary The Silk Railway to China and its new commercial avenues.