The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir (1975)

Directed by

Claudia Weill, Shirley MacLaine

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 14m

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

An American delegation of women visits China during the Cultural Revolution. The film shows what their government guides allowed them to see, including surgery with acupuncture and life on farms and schools.

observationalcuratedearnestdatedpolitically chargedpropagandisticidealistic

What happens

The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir is a 1975 American documentary film directed by Shirley MacLaine and Claudia Weill. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film depicts a group of American women who travel to China during the Cultural Revolution. They see surgery performed under acupuncture anesthesia, and the "glory" of life on Chinese farms and schools under Mao. The film only shows the idealized version of China her government handlers allowed her to see, and was dismissed in the West as propaganda. MacLaine later recounted a anecdote from her visit to Deng Xiaoping, who dismissed it as false. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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