Hope 200?
Distributed by Forward In Time, Stanley Stern, Executive Producer, Parallel Lines, 48 Montauk Ave., East Hampton, NY 11937; (631) 329-6998
Produced by Jinwei Wang
Directed by Jinwei Wang
DVD, color, 30 min.
Sr. High - Adult
Asian Studies, Human Rights, Religious Studies
Date Entered: 03/07/2008
Reviewed by Maureen Donovan, The Ohio State UniversityJinwei Wang's Hope is a documentary about a Canadian Falun Gong practitioner, Zenon Dolnyckyl, who traveled to China in November 2001 as part of a group of 36 people from ten nations to protest the violent suppression of Falun Gong initiated July 20, 1999 by Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin. Members of the group, including Dolnyckyl, were beaten by police, detained and then deported from China for displaying a banner on Tienanmen Square with Chinese characters for the three words that summarize the Falun Dafa (great law): truth, compassion, and forbearance/tolerance.
Dolnyckyl's personal journey is revealed through interviews with him, his friend Dan Pelosi, and his mother Orysia McCabe, while photos and videos taken in China during 1999 to 2001 present background of the Chinese crackdown against practitioners. This film is a good introduction to Falun Gong.