“Free China” Film Screened at European Parliament, Well Received
Created: 2012-06-24
A preview screening for the award-winning documentary “Free China: The Courage to Believe” was held at the European Parliament on Wednesday night.
It’s only been 2 months since the film started debuting at film festivals, but it has already won three international awards.
The organizer of Wednesday’s screening stresses the film is timely and important because it exposes the widespread ongoing human rights violations in China.
[Tunne Kelam, Member of European Parliament]:
“This film will be a very important channel to our awareness of how our brothers and sisters in different countries, in some of the biggest countries of the world are forced to live their lives and how it is possible to stand up for human dignity and their beliefs in all conditions."
The film follows the story of two practitioners of the Falun Gong meditation discipline, who along with tens of millions of other Falun Gong adherents have been persecuted for their beliefs in China.
As they manage to escape to the free world they speak out for those who are left behind and still languishing in Chinese prisons and labor camps.
[Tunne Kelam, Member of European Parliament]:
“And such stories, you can't avoid them, you can't just forget them if you watch such a film. Therefore I think it should be a guiding principle: we need to have trade but we need at the same time to balance it with our support for elementary human rights, liberty and dignity of every human person.”
The film received a warm welcome from audience at the event.
[Piotr Andrzejewski, Intern at the European Parliament]:
“I think it's a great deal that this film was actually created because it tells the story that was basically unknown to the western people, to the people in the European Union.”
[Zsuzsa-Anna Ferenczy, Assistant to Member of European Parliament]:
“I think it's important that the EU and its leaders be consistent and persistent and continue emphasizing whenever they can with the Chinese authorities that this needs to stop, because these are not the values that we believe in.”
[Tunne Kelam, Member of European Parliament]:
"I think this is very much needed, especially for a Western audience and also for us, because big countries, big authoritarian or dictatorial countries have a special impact on the democratic leaders, because the economic interests are so, so enormous.”
The film, produced by Kean Wong of NTD Television, was directed by Michael Perlman, the man behind the award-winning documentary “Tibet: Beyond Fear.”
NTD, Brussels, Belgium
