Investigative Filmmakers Barred From China

Filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill were barred from visiting the Bejing Independent Film Festival this week.  The Chinese government denied the pair visas to travel to the festival, where they hoped to speak with audiences of their HBO documentary, “China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province.”  Their film follows the struggles of parents whose children were killed during the earthquake in the central Chinese province last May.  These children were among thousands who perished when approximately 7,000 substandard classrooms collapsed during the quake.

 The scandal that erupted over the deaths of the children has sparked a controversy that continues to rage.  The term "tofu-dregs schoolhouses" has now become a derisive Chinese name for the shoddy and corruption-ridden construction process behind the structures that suffered mass casualties of schoolchildren during the disaster.  See today’s NY Times article and the film’s site for more information.

(Cross-posted at Buck Naked Politics)