Film Lists for Water, Environment, Urbanization in China and India

Title

Subject Headings

Library Call#

Citation

Summary

The Yangtze river: China's wild lifeline

Water Pollution

The Three Gorges Dam

Streamed online
(Duke only)

in Films On Demand

Films Media Group, 2009. Online Video.

This program sheds light on humanity's battle to tame and profit from the river-specifically, a project initiated by Chiang Kai-shek in the 1930s. The program also studies corresponding ecological problems. Viewers are introduced to the Three Gorges Dam, which has created huge economic benefits but also displaced thousands from their homes and irrevocably altered silt flow, geological formations, and fish stock levels. Citizens who have relocated and adapted offer commentary, along with scientists and engineers familiar with "China's New Great Wall.

Waking the green tiger: the rise of a green movement in China

Environmental Protest

Dams

Lilly Library:
DVD 21644

Dir. Gary Marcuse. Face to Face Media, 2011. DVD.

"Seen through the eyes of activists, farmers, and journalists Waking the Green Tiger follows an extraordinary campaign to stop a huge dam project on the upper Yangtze river in southwestern China. Featuring astonishing archival footage never seen outside China, and interviews with a government insider and witnesses, the documentary also examines Chairman Mao's campaigns to conquer nature in the name of progress.

Chen mo de Nu Jiang/ 沉默的怒江/ Silent Nu River

Dams

Environmental Protection

Lilly Library:
DVD 15401

Dir. Jie Hu. Cai feng dian ying you xian gong si 2006. DVD.

A cascade of thirteen hydroelectric dams is poised to be built along the Nu River. The first one is set on Songta Village in Tibet. The film opens with a caravan starting out from Songta to another dam site on the ancient Tea Horse Route along the river. The camera captures the vegetation on the river valley, the people, their lifestyle, the history and destruction that is soon to come.

Summary from: http://www.visiblerecord.com/en/films/?id=C010

Water farmers

Agriculture

Farm Life

Library Service Center:

VC 3966 c.1

Dir. Michael Lerner. University of California Extension Media Center, 1983. Video cassette.

Shows how in the Yangzi River Delta water has completely shaped the Shaoxing farmers' unique way of life. Follows the farmers through their daily activities on the waterways as they harvest lotus, farm fish and pearls, and make the region's famous rice wine. Emphasizes the traditional harmonious relationship between the Chinese people and their environment.

Meltdown in Tibet

Dams

Forced Migration

Lilly Library:
DVD 24840

Dir.  Michael Buckley.

Wild Yak Films, 2009. DVD.

Using undercover footage and stills, Meltdown in Tibet blows the lid off China's huge and potentially catastrophic dam-building projects in Tibet. The mighty rivers sourced in Tibet are lifelines to the people of India and Southeast Asia. These rivers are at great risk from rapidly receding glaciers, a meltdown accelerated by climate change, and from large-scale damming and diversion, due to massive Chinese engineering projects. To make way for these hydropower projects and for mining ventures, Tibetan nomads are being forced off their traditional grassland habitat and resettled in bleak villages, where they cannot make a decent living.

Testing the limits Testing the Limits of possibility: massive dams and waterworks

Land use

Environmental Protection

The Three Gorges Dam

Streamed online
(Duke Only)

in
Films On Demand

Dir. Deutsche Welle.

Films Media Group, 2006. Online Video.

When it comes to water management, many politicians and technocrats have felt that colossal problems are only solved by colossal projects: dams. But blind faith in concrete can often have devastating effects on communities and the environment. This program examines the positive and negative impact, as well as the politics and economics of several ongoing or proposed projects: China's Three Gorges Dam, Egypt's Mubarak pumping station, pit-mine reclamation in Germany's Lausitz region, and Spain's controversial national hydrological plan for the Ebro river.

Yan Mo/ 淹没 /

Before the flood

Dams

Forced Migration

Library Service Center:

DVD 20312

Dir. Yifan Li and Yu Yan. dGenerate Films, 2005. DVD.

A landmark documentary following the residents of the historic city of Fengjie as they clash with the officials forcing them to evacuate their homes to make way for the world's largest dam. China's Three Gorges Dam, the largest dam built on earth, has displaced millions of local residents whose towns and villages have been flooded. Fengjie, a city that has thrived along the Yangtze River for a thousand years, has only a few months left before it is completely submerged in water. Its citizens contend with administrators and each other over the residences in "New Fengjie", which are allocated via lottery and are far smaller than the homes they've worked a lifetime to build. Communist collectivism gives way to individual ruthlessness while the community battles furiously against bureaucratic mismanagement.

Yangtze: new China and the old river.

Dams

Forced migration

Library Service Center:

VC 11066 c.1

Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 1999. Video cassette.

When the Chinese government completes the 1.2-mile Three Gorges Dam, its 370-mile reservoir is expected to partially or completely blot out 2 cities, 11 counties, 140 towns, 326 townships, and 1,351 villages. This program, filmed during the initial phase of the project, documents the lives of the people who will be uprooted--and some of the finest scenery in China, which will be lost--when the dam is completed. Supporters say the benefits of the project far outweigh the costs, but the 1.1 million people who face resettlement disagree.

Yan mo II, Gongtan / Before the flood II, Gongtan

Dams

Forced migration

Library Service Center:

DVD 20921

Dir. Yan Yu.

dGenerate Films, 2008. DVD.

Yan Yu follows his groundbreaking documentary Before the Flood with this profile of the residents of Gongtan, a 1700-year-old village soon to be demolished by a hydroelectric dam project. Gongtan, a historic village located on a tributary of the Yangtze, is about to be flooded by a dam project, forcing its residents to relocate. National imperatives displace local lives as authorities make decisions with little regard for village life. Ran Qingsong, a barber, and Ran Si, a cell-phone proprietor, rally the residents of Gongtan to stand against their impending displacement. But the will of the townspeople to save their land and homes soon wavers in the face of external pressure and internal suspicion.

Up the Yangtze

The Three Gorges Dam

Lilly Library: 

DVD 12170 c.2

Ford Library: #4118

(Fuqua users only)

Dir. Yung Chang.

Zeitgeist Films, 2008. DVD.

Life surrounding the Yangtze is changing due to the Three Gorges Dam. Filmmaker Yung Chang goes on a farewell cruise that traverses the gargantuan waterway.

Bing'ai/ 秉爱/  Bing ai*

Forced migration

The Three Gorges Dam

Lilly Library:
DVD 12921 disc 1-2 c.1

Dir. Yan Feng. China Independent Documentary Film Archive, 2007. DVD.

With the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, now under construction, 1.13 million people along the Yangtze River will have been dislocated. The majority of them are farmers. The documentary film features one woman farmer, Zhang Bing'ai who refuses to move away from her village. The audience will follow her seven-year struggle with officials who pressure her to relocate, while a strong devotion to her land compels her to remain in the place she calls home. More than 20 years ago, she moved into this area and married to a local farmer. Her husband has health problem. She is the one bearing all the burdens of life. But she is full of hope for the future. Her son is the only one in the village who goes to the county high school.

Bei yiing/背影/

Fengjie, the submerged county*

Forced migration

The Three Gorges Dam

Lilly Library:

DVD 4450 disc 3 c.1

Library Service Center:

DVD 4450 disc 1-2 c.1

Dir. Lisheng Zhang. Zhongguo guo ji dian shi zong gong si, 2004. DVD.

Documentary film of a historic town, Fengjie Xian, submerged by Yangtze River Gorges.

Yong yuan de San Xia / 永远的三峡

/The eternal Yangtze River Gorges*

The Three Gorges Dam

Library Service Center

DVD 9801 disc1+2 c.1

DVD 9801 disc3+4 c.1

DVD 9801 disc5+6 c.1

DVD 9801 disc7+8 c.1

Dir. Zhijiang Wang. Shenzhen yin xiang gong si chu ban fa xing, 2003. DVD.

Three Gorges: the biggest dam in the world

Forced migration

The Three Gorges Dam

Library Service Center:

DVD 9625 c.1

Dir. Justin Albert. Discovery Channel Video, 2002. DVD.

Using interviews and computer simulation, this video provides insight into the complex issues surrounding the Three Gorges project which will dam the Yangtse River.

Pollution in China

Water pollution

Streamed online

(Duke Only)
in Filmakers Library Online

Dir. Televisio de Catalunya.

Filmakers Library, 2008. Online Video.

While the Chinese government ineffectually tries to grapple with its growing environmental problems, rising discontent among the masses augurs political changes. The film shows the city of Chongqing on the Yangzte River, to be one of the most industrialized and polluted areas in China. Drinking water for the local population is precarious at best. Some 360 million Chinese find themselves in similar circumstances. One entrepreneur lost 450 tons of fish -- and his business -- as the result of illegal dumping. Six years of legal action against the polluting industry have come to nothing. He complains that during the case, the corrupt authorities made his life hell. In Linfen, one of the world's most polluted cities, we see how China s growing dependence on coal to fuel its industries takes its toll. Cities like Linfen are becoming the biggest source of greenhouse gases. Residents in the area are disgusted and demand solutions but the local authorities do nothing. The Ministry of the Environment has neither the will nor the resources to tackle the polluters.

Title

Subject Headings

Library Call#

Citation

Summary

Lao jing/ 老井/ Old well

Water Supply

Library Service Center

DVD 17555

Dir. Tianming Wu. Xi'an dian ying zhi pian chang lu yin lu xiang chu ban she, 2005. DVD.

Set deep in the Taihang Mountains, a town struggles to survive in a constant search for water. Zhang Yimou, who also shot the film, stars here as a young man recently returned to his village and caught between old traditions, new ideas and two women. Xian Film Studio head Wu Tianming directs in a manner that never loses the gritty reality of its setting nor shies from the emotions of its love story.

Xian dai hao xia zhuan / 現代豪俠傳 / executioners

Water Pollution

Water Supply

Library Service Center

DVD 959 disc.1+2 c.1

Dir. Qifeng Du and Xiaodong Cheng.

Wuhan yin xiang chu ban she, 2000. DVD.

Uncontaminated water becomes a precious commodity in a small Asian republic after a nuclear war, and its control determines the outcome of a power struggle among politicians and warlords.

Sanxia hao ren / 三峡好人 /

Still Life

Forced migration

The Three Gorges Dam

Lilly Library:

DVD 9894

Dir. Zhangke Jia. CAV Warner Home Entertainment, 2006. DVD.

Coalminer Han Sanming comes from Fengyang in Shanxi to the Three Gorges town Fengjie to look for his ex-wife whom he has not seen for 16 years. The couple meet on the bank of the Yangtze River and vow to remarry. Nurse Shen Hong also comes to Fengjie from Taiyuan in Shanxi to look for her husband who has not been home for two years. The couple embrace each other and waltz under the imposing Three Gorges dam, but feel they are so apart and decide to have a divorce. The old township has been submerged, while a new town has to be built. Life persists in the Three Gorges - what should be taken up is taken up, what should be cast off is cast off.

Title

Subject Headings

Library Call#

Citation

Summary

Peng Hui zuo pin xuan/ 彭輝作品選／

Selected works from Hui Peng*

Wildlife

Library Service Center:

DVD 15476

Dir. Hui Peng. Changchun dian ying zhi pian chang yin sheng yin xiang chu ban she, 2007. DVD.

Balance: The director took three years capturing the struggle between people trying to protect the animals that live in the wildlife preserve and bands of poachers in the remote Qinghai-Tibetan region of Kekexili (Hoh Xil). Kongshan: the director uses his camera to depict famers' life in a drought-plagued mountain village in Tongjiang County, Sichuan Province and their consistent struggle of seeking a water resource. A cinema on back: A talented farmer dedicates his life to being a roaming film projectionist in a mountain area in Sichuan Province.

China from the inside. [Episode 3], Shifting nature

Environmental degradation

Air Pollution

Streamed online

(Duke Only)
in
NC Live Video Collection

Lilly:

DVD 9666

Dir. Jonathan Lewis.

PBS Home Video, 2007. Online Video.

The third program in a series of four documentaries that surveys China through Chinese eyes to see how history has shaped them, and where the present is taking them. This third segment looks at environmental issues in China. China is trying to feed 20 percent of the world's population on 7 percent of the world's arable land. A third of the world uses water from China's rivers. But rapid industrialization and climate change have led to bad air, polluted rivers and drought. Environmental activists, Party officials, academics and scientists are in a daily struggle over the damage to nature in China.

The race for what's left

Natural Resources

Streamed online
(Duke Only)

in
MEF Digital

Dir. Sut Jhally

Media Education Foundation, 2013. Online Video.

Renowned energy expert Michael T. Klare provides an invaluable account of the new and increasingly dangerous competition for the world's dwindling natural resources. Arguing that the world is facing an unprecedented crisis of resource depletion -- one that goes beyond "peak oil" to encompass shortages of coal and uranium, copper and lithium, water, and arable land -- Klare shows how the desperate hunt for raw materials is forcing governments and corporations to stake their claim in ever more dangerous and remote areas that present grave political and environmental risks. Citing mounting tensions between the U.S. and China over control of resources in the Asia-Pacific region, volatile local border disputes that raise the likelihood of military confrontation, and the destructive environmental consequences of tar sands oil extraction and fracking, Klare argues that we need to radically alter our consumption patterns and build alternative energy systems before it's too late.

The warriors of Qiugang

Air Pollution

Green Movement

Lilly Library:
DVD 18863

Dir. Ruby Yang. Cinema Guild, 2010. DVD.

Villagers in a remote district of central China take on a chemical company that is poisoning their water and air. For five years they fight to transform their environment and as they do, they find themselves transformed as well.

Green Rim: Towards a Sustainable Pacific Rim

Air pollution

Climatic Changes

Energy development

Streamed online
(Duke Only)

in

Films on Demand

Dir. Robert Gliner.

Films Media Group, 2011. Online Video.

As the world’s top two carbon emitters, China and the U.S. face significant challenges reducing emissions while keeping up with a growing demand for more energy. Is there potential for cooperation between both Pacific Rim nations on this important issue, or is each country seeking its own distinct solutions? This program explores the collaborative efforts of American and Chinese academics and decision-makers to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, increase energy efficiency, and produce renewable energy. Filmed on location in China and Silicon Valley, the video shows why clean-technology solutions might only be effective if they are easy to integrate into everyday life.

China: Sustainable Homebuilding

Sustainable development

Air pollution

Streamed online
(Duke only)

In
Films on Demand

Films Media Group, 2010. Online Video.

Having overtaken the U.S. as the world’s biggest CO²polluter, China is now responsible for 11 percent of all greenhouse gas production. Can the country reduce its carbon footprint without slowing its unprecedented economic growth? This program shows how that question is playing out in the Chinese construction industry, highlighting the creation and practical application of new homebuilding standards. Collaboration between French and Chinese experts has led to groundbreaking insulation techniques—illustrated here in conversations with architects, site managers, building residents, and instructors in the sustainable development program at the Wuhan University of Science and Technology.

Title

Subject Headings

Library Call#

Citation

Summary

Bo yi/ 博弈/ Game theory

Land use

Rural China

Lilly Library:  
DVD 24858 c.1

Dir. Qingren Wang. Tian ma xing kong shu wei you xian gong si, 2011. DVD.

Farmers rely on the land for survival. In China, these farmers have no rights to the land essential to their survival. Especially during the past 30 years of accelerating industrialization and urbanization. In order to protect their limited land-use rights, they played a game of chess with government and enterprise. This films documents the demolition of two small villages located between Beijing and Tianjin during the years 2005 to 2009.

Shanghai: space.

City planning

Streamed online
(Duke only)

in
Filmakers Library Online

Dir. Nanna Frank Moller. Filmakers Library, 2011. Online Video.

Soon more than 550 cities world-wide will have a population of more than one million. In 2030 eighty percent of the world's population will live in cities. Megacities have traditionally been economic and political power centers but today the fastest growing cities are in developing nations.

No vacancy: global responses to the human population explosion

Population

Rural-urban migration

Globalization

Streamed online
(Duke Only)

in
Films on Demand

Films Media Group, 2006. Online Video.

With the population of the Earth poised to double within the next five decades, there is evidence that the pendulum of overpopulation is beginning to swing the other way. In this program, Population Communication's Robert Gillespie visits India, China, Mexico, Indonesia, Iran, Ghana, Nigeria, France, the U.S., and elsewhere to observe a fertility transition that may prove to be one of the most important elements in humankind's survival.

China: food for a billion plus

Land use

Food supply

Streamed online
(Duke Only)

in
Films on Demand

Films Media Group, 2005. Online Video

Despite its huge population and expanding industrial economy, most of China's inhabitants are farmers. This program journeys to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Beijing, exploring the relationship between Chinese agriculture and the urban centers of the country. Featuring visits to large-scale and family-operated farms, a walk along the Great Wall, and an interview with the U.S. embassy's agricultural attache, the program illuminates China's efforts to improve crop yields, food distribution, and environmental conditions.

Wo men cun li de nian qing ren/ 我们村里的年青人/

The young of our country

Social conditions

Library Service Center:

DVD 2152 disc1+2 c.1

DVD 2152 disc3+4 c.1

Dir. Li Su. Bei ying lu yin lu xiang gong si, 1997. DVD.

The story of the young men and women who build electric power in their hometown in rural China.

From nomad to nobody [why is China snuffing out Tibet's nomad culture?]

    Forced migration

Lilly Library:
DVD 24839 disc1+2 c.1

Dir.  Michael Buckley.

Wild Yak Films, 2011. DVD.

Between 1995 and 2015, official Chinese policy has targeted the removal of more than two million Tibetan nomads from their land for settlement. In an era where sustainability is the mantra, Chinese policy makes no sense. This re-settlement policy is designed to wipe out nomad culture and its strong connections to traditional Tibetan values. Nomads are the stewards of the vast grasslands of Tibet--they have been grazing these lands with their yaks for close on 4,000 years. Without the nomads, the grasslands (already affected by climate change) will further deteriorate and turn into desert. This could have global impact, as these grasslands constitute an important carbon sink. What are the motives behind China's forcible settlement of Tibetan nomads on such a huge scale? Why are Chinese mining and dam-building companies moving into the same grassland regions? What happens to nomads after shifting to a semi-urban environment? What happens if they try to mount protests? What does the future hold for the vast grasslands of Tibet? These are questions the documentary sets out to explore, in this personal take on the plight of Tibetan nomads.

China rises

Economic conditions

Social conditions

Lilly Library:

DVD 8518 disc 1-2 c.1

DVD 8518 disc 3-4 c.1

Dir. Michael Murphy.

Discovery Education, 2006. DVD.

China has made an amazing economic, social and political transformation, but it continues to struggle with an enormous population, stressed environment, and unequal distribution of wealth and opportunity.

La ji wei cheng : Wang Jiuliang zhi guan cha /垃圾之城 : 王久良之观察/  Beijing besieged by waste : the observations from Wang Jiuliang

Refuse and refuse disposal

Pollution

Lilly Library:

DVD 19514 c.2

Dir. Jiuliang Wang.
[China : s.n.], 2011. DVD.

While China's rise, and its immense challenges, commands world attention, less light has been shed upon the colossal problem of waste generated by a burgeoning population, expanding industry, and rapacious urban growth. Photographer Wang Jiuliang turns his lens upon the grim spectacle of garbage, excrement, refuse, and wreckage heaped upon the landscape that surrounds China's mega-metropolis, Beijing.

The trash trade: selling garbage to China

Recycling

Streamed online
(Duke Only)

in
Filmakers Library Online

Filmakers Library, 2006. Online video.

Japanese waste is turning into gold in the hands of Chinese dealers who extract valuable metal and plastic from mountains of scrap. The rubbish is carefully disassembled in China, then made into new cars and clothes that are shipped back to Japan. This international recycling system appears to kill two huge birds with one stone. China s lack of resources and Japan's rubbish problem. But, there is a problem. Japan’s own recycling industry is running out of raw materials, and it s on the brink of collapse. And not all Japanese trash is welcome. Discarded computers are making their way onto the black market in China, and contributing to pollution. Recycling is regarded as the keystone of sustainability, but is recycling itself sustainable?