NFB Collection
They Chose China
200552 min 26 secFilm: Documentary
Direction: Shui-Bo Wang
Production: Claude BoninÉric MichelPaul Saadoun
Co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada, 13 Production and Arte France, with the participation of the Centre national de la cinématographie and the collaboration of China Intercontinental Communication Center.
It is January 1954. The Korean War is over. Captured UN soldiers held in POW camps are free to return home. Those who refuse repatriation to their homeland are transferred to a neutral zone and given 90 days to reconsider their decision. Among them are 21 American soldiers who decide defiantly to stay in China.
Back in the United States, McCarthyism is at its height. Many Americans believe these young men have been brainwashed by Chinese communists through a new form of thought control. But what really happened?
Featuring never-before-seen footage from the Chinese camps as well as interviews with former POWs and their families, They Chose China tells the fascinating stories of these forgotten American dissidents.
With the Cold War fading into memory, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Shuibo Wang (Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square) aims his camera on this astonishing story. In They Chose China, we meet and begin to understand a group of courageous men who fought for and then cut ties with the USA.
Availability
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Subject categories
- Foreign Countries > AsiaUnited States
- War, Conflict and Peace > AsiaKorean War
- Politics and Government > Political RepressionWar and Conflict
- History > World History
- History and Citizenship Education > Civil Rights and Freedoms
- Civics/Citizenship > Ideologies
Credits
- participation
- David Hawkins
- Della Adams
- Lin Adams
- Jessica Adams
- Richard Westbrook
- Bai Xirong
- Shaolei Veneris
- Shaoxia Veneris
- Lu Wenxin
- Cheng Shaokun
- Hao Zhanjun
- Li Honglin
- Liu Xuanzhen
- Lu Bin
- Pan Chongyuan
- Qian Meide
- Su Yunbao
- Wang Youfen
- Wu Dashou
- Wu Henian
- Wu Jun
- Xia Fangmin
- Zhou Shanqun
- director
- Shui-Bo Wang
- producer
- Claude Bonin
- executive producer
- Éric Michel
- Paul Saadoun
- associate producer
- Joanne Carrière
- Véronique Rabuteau
- editor
- Ragnar Van Leyden
- director of photography
- Sylvestre Guidi
- production manager
- Jelena Popovic
- Li Pei
- research
- Pascale Bilodeau
- original music
- Peter Chase
- narration - writer
- Shui-Bo Wang
- Donald McWilliams
- narrator
- Shui-Bo Wang
- stock shot research
- Pascale Bilodeau
- Elizabeth Klinck
- Tanya Fleet
- archives off-line conform
- Valérie Précourt
- Guillaume Millet
- translation
- Li Yu
- subtitles
- Li Yu
- Kathleen Fee
- interpreter
- Xiaodan He
- sound engineer
- Zhang Yong
- Sylvain Vary
- voice director
- Kathleen Fee
- voice casting
- Kathleen Fee
- voice recording
- Kathleen Fee
- recording
- Geoffrey Mitchell
- voice
- Joanna Noyes
- Kelly Ricard
- Luis de Cespedes
- Paul Stewart
- sound editor
- Daniel Toussaint
- re-recording
- Luc Léger
- digital editing technician
- Ochelle Greenidge
- Carole Lalonde
- Martine Forget
- image processing
- Pierre Landry
- Louise Overy
- titles
- Gaspard Gaudreau
- online editor
- Denis Pilon
- Françoise Laprise
- post-production co-ordinator
- Jean-Pierre St-Michel
- Andrée Delagrave
- administrator
- Maryse Chapdelaine
- administrator - assistant
- Isabelle de Bellefeuille
- Nathalie Cloutier
- project coordinator
- Brigitte Couture
- production team
- Catherine Frebourg
- Clarisse Gatti
- Marie-Christine Gely
- Sandra Moella
- Malik Menaï
Awards
- Golden Gate Award for Best Television Documentary Long FormInternational Film Festival
- Juror's Choice AwardBlack Maria Film and Video Festival
- Platinum Remi AwardWorldFest - International Film Festival
- Grand Jury AwardUnited Nations Association Film Festival
- Silver Chris - Category: Humanities International Film and Video Festival