Directed By: Floris-Jan van Luyn
2009 | 70 min
China, The Netherlands

Sunday, November 13: 5:00 pm

Kaufmann Theater
Filmmaker in person | U.S. Premiere

Filmmaker and journalist Floris-Jan van Luyn is on the front lines of modern China, depicting the country's major historical shifts through the experiences of the individuals living through them. In Rainmakers, he introduces us to four ordinary people who have become environmental activists out of necessity. Kept awake at night by the noxious fumes of a garbage incinerator, a Beijing woman unites her neighbors in a mass protest. A fisherwoman in a southern province circulates a petition to clean up the river polluted by a nearby paint factory. A tough-minded housewife from Hunan writes letter after letter to officials demanding the shutdown of a nearby factory poisoning her village's groundwater. A small community of shepherds in Inner Mongolia devise a plan to reclaim desiccated pastureland. While the government pays lip service to green economic policies, these hopeful citizens brave bureaucracy, cynicism, greed, and violence in their fight for the most basic of human rights: clean air and clean water.

Co-presented by Asia Society

Preceded byBroad Channel

Part of the series Inventing Home

Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award Contender