
Premiere Jan. 25, 2008 at Landmark Theater, Kendall Square, Cambridge
«
Produced by Ted Leonsis, Bill Guttentag, Michael Jacobs
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«
Directed by Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman
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Screenplay/Story by Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman
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« Associate
producers : Joann Jacobs, Dylan Nelson, Katie Strand, Izumi Tanaka,
Makiko Wakai
«
Casts:
Hugo Armstrong, Rosalind Chao, Stephen Dorff, John Getz, Woody
Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway, Michelle Krusiec, Leah Liang, Chris
Mulkey, Jürgen Prochnow, Sonny Saito, Graham Sibley, Mark Valley,
Robert Wu
"Any
profit from the film will go toward creating a foundation for
the victims and their offspring."
Ted Leonsis,
in a interview with
Washington Post
, March 31, 2007. |
|
 Nanking,
the film features interviews with Chinese survivors and Japanese soldiers,
along with pictures, letters, and diaries read by actors portraying
westerners who helped save more than 200,000 Chinese refugees in Nanking,
currently known as Nanjing(南京), in 1937.
The Nanjing Massacre occurred in December 1937 when Japanese troops occupied
the then capital of China. More than 300,000 Chinese were believed murdered
and thousands of women raped.
"I felt that the massacre had largely been ignored by history. I hope we
can tell people the truth," said Bill Guttentag, who shot the film with
partner Dan Sturman, earlier this month in Shanghai.
The idea came from
Ted Leonsis, vice chairman of America Online, who
came across an obituary of a young writer named Iris Chang(張純如) who wrote the
best-selling book
The Rape of Nanking.
Leonsis bought the book and was startled to discover a tragedy he had never
heard of. He decided to use two million U.S. dollars of his own money to
shoot a documentary film on the Nanking Massacre, and invited the
Academy
Award-winning writer/director team of Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman
to
co-direct it.
Leonsis revealed his motivation in his blog: "As someone who has always
believed in the power of goodness, I wanted to do something to share this
story with others, and so I put together a research and production team,
and decided to fund this movie and serve as its producer."
Guttentag adopted the angle of a handful of brave westerners who worked in
horrific circumstances to save the lives of several hundred thousand Chinese
civilians.
Guttentag and his crew visited six countries over a period of eight months
to collect video, audio and written materials.
The crew interviewed 240 Japanese soldiers still alive, six of whom appeared
in the film, the youngest being almost 90 years old.
Guttentag also interviewed 30 Nanjing massacre survivors. He was still
haunted by the story of Chang Zhiqiang(常志強), who was only 9 years old in 1937.
After his mother was killed by a Japanese soldier, he still remembered his
baby brother trying to suck the breast of his mother covered in blood.
The film has received numerous plaudits including an accolade from Reuters
who called it a "beautifully crafted film...(that) honors the highest
calling of documentary filmmaking."
abridged from
http://www.bjreview.com.cn/movies/txt/2007-07/23/content_70066.htm
Premiere Jan. 25, 2008 at Landmark Theater, Kendall Square, Cambridge
For all inquiries or questions, please send email to
info@nanking1937.com
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