“Hard Boiled” director John Woo is developing a historical drama about Chinese American Dean Lung — the valet of Oakland’s first mayor Horace Walpole Carpentier — whose donation helped found Columbia University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. The film has the working title “Dean Lung.”

The university still refers to the letter Lung sent to Columbia president Seth Low in 1901. “I send you here with a deposit check for $12,000 as a contribution to the fund for Chinese learning in your university,” it said. Later, in order to honor him, Carpentier provided additional donations.

“I hope I can make it before I retire. I really want to do it,” Woo told Variety at Fantasia Film Festival in Montréal, where he picked up his Career Achievement Award.

“He was this man’s servant and there were conflicts at the beginning, but later, they started to learn from each other. When he retired, he donated all his savings to the university. His picture still hangs on the wall.”

Woo described the film — whose script is being written, with financing being sought — as “serious drama, but not too serious.”

“It’s a very human story,” he said, also underlining its universal appeal.

“These days, there are so many misunderstandings between the people in the West and the people in the East. I think we need to work on it more, work on understanding each other. I want to make a movie that would serve as a bridge between two different cultures. We can be friends – I really believe that.”

Before that, Woo will stretch his action muscles with Joel Kinnaman starrer “Silent Night,” already hailed as his comeback.

“It’s a pretty unique film, even though it’s a common story: a son gets killed and a father tries to avenge him. But there is no dialogue – it’s completely visual,” he said.

“It was very challenging. I had to make sure the audience understands the story and accepts it, and accepts this character’s emotions. I am so lucky to have found an actor like Joel. He delivered a great performance and he was so happy to do it, too. After all, he didn’t have to talk!”

Always interested in dramatic storylines and high stakes, with his characters looking for redemption or fighting for their honor, Woo partly attributes it to his Christian upbringing.

“I guess that’s where it comes from. When I was younger, I just loved the church. When I decided to make films, I automatically started to put a lot of Christian imagery in them. Concepts of redemption and love for people, spirituality. I never wanted to lecture about religion. I just wanted people to feel this atmosphere.”

Still, despite all the drama, humor is always the key, he said, which is something he misses in new action spectacles.

“It’s all about action, action, action and special effects. They are missing a sense of humor. But it helps, in real life as well,” he said.

“Humor brings meaning to our relationships. When I was still shooting films in Hong Kong, we always liked to make people laugh.”

While the instant recognizability of his work might have eventually hurt his international career, he admitted, he grew to appreciate people’s love for some of his famed visual motifs, such as white doves flying around in slow-motion.

“The funny thing is that sometimes, I didn’t want to use these things in my films. I would go: ‘It’s too much, let’s do something different.’ And then the whole crew would rebel! ‘John, please, put some birds in there somewhere!,’” he said with a laugh.

“But I am so grateful. After all these years, people still love my movies. I was so amazed, seeing all these people [at Fantasia] who care for me and support me. It’s very encouraging.”

Some of his stars also continue to reach out, including his “Face/Off” leads.

“Nic Cage always says nice things about me in public. The truth is, I don’t talk too much with my actors. They are busy, I am busy. And I am not very social! But some keep sending me Christmas cards, they keep celebrating my birthday. Especially John Travolta.”

“He has been sending me cards every year!”

John Woo Develops Historical Drama ‘Dean Lung’.

Variety.com

John Woo Develops

Speaking to Deadline from Fantasia Film Festival (Montreal, July 14-August 3), where he is being honored with a career achievement award, Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo revealed details of his recent return to U.S. filmmaking – feature films Silent Night and Peacock’s reboot of his iconic 1989 action thriller The Killer – as well as an upcoming passion project about the man who helped establish Columbia University’s East Asian Languages & Cultures Department. Woo wrapped Silent Night, produced by Thunder Road and Capstone Studios, in Mexico in May. The film stars Joel Kinnaman as a father on a mission to avenge his young son who was killed in the cross-fire of gang violence. Kid Cudi, Harold Torres and Catalina Sandino Moreno also star. NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock recently announced Woo’s English-language remake of The Killer as part of its first slate of original films.

Fantasia is screening Woo’s 1992 classic Hard Boiled, one of the films that helped blast Hong Kong action cinema into the international stratosphere, as well as Face/Off, starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, one of several films he directed in Hollywood after making the transition in the mid-1990s (along with Hard Target, Broken Arrow and Mission: Impossible II). He returned to Asia in the mid-2000s, when mainland China’s fledging film industry was first starting to take off, where he directed two-part historical epics Red Cliff and The Crossing, as well as Japan-set crime thriller Manhunt, which premiered at Venice film festival in 2017.

Q: You seemed to have a lot of projects in development in Asia a few years back. Why decide to return to the U.S. to make a film?

JW: There were a couple of topics I wanted to make in China, but it was difficult to get the finance and I couldn’t find anything else I wanted to do. When I got the script for Silent Night from Thunder Road, I thought it was very unique and just loved it. What attracted me is that the script doesn’t have any dialogue – the whole movie is totally visual, you’re using visual images, sound and music to tell the story – so for me that’s something pretty new. If I’d stayed in China, I would probably still be making the same old things, another war movie or action movie, so even though this film has a pretty small budget and a tight schedule, that was fine with me. I also got to work with a wonderful actor in Joel Kinnaman.

Q: What stage are you at with the remake of The Killer?

JW: We originally tried to hire another director to shoot it, but couldn’t find anyone, so I took on the job. We maybe shouldn’t call this The Killer, because we’re making a very different version, as the lead character [an assassin played by Chow Yun-fat in the original] will be played by a woman. We’re doing the casting now. We were talking to Lupita Nyong’o but she had to pass so we’re looking for somebody else. The story is similar to The Killer, but we can say it’s more of a story about friendship than a love story.

Q: What was the project you were finding difficult in China?

JW: One topic was about the Flying Tigers [a U.S. volunteer group working with the China Air Force in the Second World War], a very big Hollywood-style, big-budget action movie. But it was a complicated film, we’d have to build old Flying Tiger planes and use a lot of VFX, so it was hard to get financed. It would have had a budget equal to Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbour.

Q: Do you keep in touch with the Hong Kong film industry? What do you think about the current state of Hong Kong film?

JW: I haven’t lived in Hong Kong for some years as I’m living in Los Angeles, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about [the Hong Kong and Chinese film industries]. I think they need to make some changes, especially in Hong Kong, as it’s becoming limited creatively. We need to come up with more new stories as we have too many gangster films, and a few smaller lifestyle dramas, so we should think about what changes we can make, because otherwise the market is going to get smaller and smaller. Then of course the big problem is that they need more money – more investment in Hong Kong film, including investment from mainland China.

Q: After such a long break from working in North America, what was it like shooting in the U.S. and Mexico?

JW: People are still the same, I still get the same respect and all the crew worked so well together. I wish I could make all my movies in different countries. I’m on a mission to learn from new people, and learn from some other cultures, and also make a movie in Hollywood that’s like a bridge; to bring in the culture from China and the culture from the West and try to blend them together. There’s a couple of stories I’m working on. One is based on a true story about a Chinese guy, Dean Lung, who worked as a servant in New York in the 1870s, and his relationship with his master. He donated all his savings to Columbia University so they could set up a Chinese language and culture course. Then he convinced his master to also donate. They still have his picture displayed at Columbia and the course still exists. Hopefully, stories like this can increase understanding on both sides. We’ve got the finance, an American-born Chinese businessman is investing, and hired a writer for the film.

Q: How are you finding the audiences at Fantasia?

JW: This is my first time in Montreal and the fans are very supportive. I just found out that this festival started out by showing a few of my Hong Kong films, then they got a lot of support and started developing the festival, so I’m proud to be a part of their family. But there’s a lot of other great Hong Kong films and I hope these can start to appear around the world as well.

John Woo On His Return To U.S. Filmmaking, New Project About Columbia University Donor Dean Lung & Remake Of ‘The Killer’.

deadline.com

John Woo on Return to US

“Better Angels,” a new film that examines U.S.-China relations through the lives of ordinary people in both nations, will formally premier in China at a private showing in Beijing on Saturday.

The film couldn’t come at a better time. Increasingly acrimonious relations between U.S. and China are hurting economic growth around the world and raising geopolitical tensions. A headline in the New York Times this week declared: “In Race for Global Power, U.S. and China Push Nations to Pick a Side.”

In an interview, “Better Angels” producer William Mundell described the movie as “the untold story of the true potential of the U.S.-China relationship” and “an opening salvo” in an effort to close the gap in U.S.-Sino relations. The two countries, he said, have “reached an inflection point in their relationship” and need to work together to “capitalize on our differences.”

The film, which took five years to make, is directed by Academy and Emmy Award winner Malcolm Clarke. Mundell’s earlier film project, “Gerrymandering,” helped to influence election reform in California. “Better Angels” cost $2.5 million to make and was financed with American money and Canadian tax credits, he said.

Mundell said he envisioned “Better Angels “as a collection of short stories,” he said. The film in part highlights the lives of ordinary people on both sides and their potential role as “accidental diplomats,” a perspective that is largely ignored by mainstream media, Mundell said. “Maybe a movie can change the dynamics of U.S.-China relations.”

Mundell first came to China with his father, Nobel-prize-winning economist Robert Mundell,  in the 1990s, and had a chance to meet Chinese leaders and learn about the country “as a fly on the wall.” The businessman has made more than 100 trips to China and is an honorary professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The showing in Beijing on Saturday is supported in part by Neil Shen, the founding partner of Sequoia China and a billionaire philanthropist. The film will receive a larger distribution in China in early 2019, Mundell said.

„Better Angels“ aims to change the dynamics of struggling U.S.-China Relations

forbes.com

BetterAngels Aims to change 

By Wang Linyan in New York | China Daily USA 

 maker says he wants both peoples to be ‘true stakeholders’ in the bilateral relationship

Acknowledging the importance of closing the understanding gap between people of the United States and China, entrepreneur William Mundell decided to step in and do his part — by making a documentary.

Better Angels explores US-China bilateral ties through the lens of well-known politicians and entrepreneurs, as well as ordinary researchers, teachers and factory workers from both countries.

“It’s about people-to-people interaction,” said Mundell.

The 90-minute documentary, which premiered in Los Angeles and New York in early November, will be released in China in early January, coinciding with a broader release in the US.

It took five years, 850 hours of filming and interviews with almost 300 people to make the film, according to Mundell, whose team included Academy Award-winning director Malcolm Clarke.

“This film is an anthropological documentary,” Mundell said, “to the extent that it’s about ordinary people interacting; it’s also about emotional connections created between the characters”.

Mundell, a long-time observer of China-US relations, said the inspiration to make the documentary was something he has felt for many years — that it’s time for the US people and Chinese people to become “true stakeholders” in the most important bilateral relationship in the world.

“We want to shatter the myths that the Americans have about China, and the Chinese have about America,” he said, “and in doing so, raise the expectations for what the US-China relationship can be”.

“I think for many years we have accustomed ourselves to the notion that we must live with our differences. I would like to see the relationship focus on capitalizing on our differences, so we can benefit each other in the process.”

One of those differences is that the Chinese are willing to “jump on the back of the tiger”, while people in the US and Europe take time to “analyze the tiger”, he said.

One story in the documentary shows how Chinese risk capital has gone into underdeveloped areas in the US and created opportunities for the nation’s long-term unemployed.

In Wilcox County, Alabama, two women tell how a Chinese copper plant, which created 300 jobs, has changed their lives in a community where there has been no industry for 30 years.

The mayor of Thomasville said in the film: “We must be friends first. We must trust each other. And if we do those two things, business will take care of itself.”

“For those people, this is a lot more than a paycheck; it’s a restoration of their dignity. I think to the extent that the Chinese risk capital comes into these pockets of America, it will be transformational for the relationship,” Mundell said.

To capitalize on bilateral differences, Mundell said that the economic relationship needs to be reset.

The quickest way to settle the job score — China won more jobs, the US lost more — between the US and China would be to deploy a portion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative to the US, he suggested.

“My message to my American compatriots right now is this: we must embrace this whole-heartedly, so we win back jobs quickly that we lost in the first phase of globalization. Over time, we won’t have to worry about job deficits.”

The deficit he worries about in America is not with trade, but with infrastructure.

“I worry that 30,000 schools in the US have chipped paint. I worry we don’t have a single high speed line. JFK airport is not up to 21st century standards. I worry about rebuilding America. And I think China and the US together can do that,” he said.

usa.chinadaily.com.cn

BetterAngels Film Offers new hope

, co-produced by American and Chinese producers, and the innovative producer Bill Mundell. 

 prompts viewers to consider the critical importance of bi-national relations, particular to U.S.-China relations, and offers a perspective shifting opportunity to gain a better understanding of Chinese-American relations and the implications, and potential, of that relationship.

After the screening, I couldn’t help but think of other important relationships for the US.  In particular – the one with Israel. And the similarities with the complicated relationship we have with China.  It is at times the most controversial relationships in the world. But the two countries share a close and mostly unwavering alliance, and it is a relationship that is mutually dependent and mutually beneficial. The United States’ unilateral support for Israel is in many ways an innovative relationship, considering the challenges faced by Israel on the global platform, yet the friendship is worth pursuing and enriching because the benefits are real and the alternative disastrous, all around.

When it comes to China, the United States needs to step it up. Yes, China is “different”, politically and culturally, and as the film captures in expert testimony, Americans overwhelmingly view China and the Chinese through a veil of mystery, as globally threatening, and certainly bad for our economy. 

 helps to break down the mystery, and at the same time, calls out the United States for a skewed perspective and for underutilizing one of the most critical opportunities on the global playing field.

Throughout the film, experts take a head on approach in describing the sharp divide between American fears and general negativity toward China and what China is really like, and shows viewers where and how China has tremendously advanced over the past decade, and in ways leaving the U.S. behind. Although the film is about broad issues like globalization and international relations, much of it captured individual stories, such as an abacus virtuoso who has transformed math learning, not only in his native China but in many countries around the world. During this particular component of the film, I felt a gnawing anxiety and jealousy- wondering if that kind of math program would ever be available to my children, as we live in the United States, with abysmal math scores across the nation. Another storyline in the film followed a leading Chinese scientist as he discusses the need for American chutzpah, when it comes to Chinese scientists and their willingness, or rather unwillingness, to take risks and to think outside of the box. I saw from both of these storylines a powerful reason to share with the other- for the U.S. to become math savvy and for China to become more open-minded.

Math scores and open-mindedness might sound like small potatoes, but the implications of how the U.S. and China relate are in fact enormous. China technically won the first round of globalization, and they are advancing and producing at an unparalleled rate, in an economical race the U.S. can simply not afford to lose again. But imagine, as 

 prompts us to do, if we were not in competition with China but instead intimately engaged, sharing expertise, technology, and money, to the benefit of everyone. That scenario sounds more like the U.S.-Israel relationship.

A Conversation with the Producer Brought a Unique Perspective

After the viewing, I was able to sit down with Producer Bill Mundell and asked about what inspired him to produce 

 and what he hopes will come of it. Bill, like his film, has a wide lens on the issue, and more than anything, he wants people to start thinking about the relationship in an entirely different way. “The narrative needs to change, and there is substantial evidence supporting a new direction of thinking and talking about China and how we can positively relate to China.” And Bill emphasized that need as critical, because the U.S. simply cannot afford to remain in the dark with China, especially as the rest of the world is getting closer to China at rapid speed. But how can we bridge the gap and cross over the lines of fear and prejudice to relate to China in a new way? Bill responded that “it’s a nuanced approach, rather than an all-or-nothing shift. I agree with President Trump that something must be done about China’s dominance in the first round of globalization, but I don’t agree that the answer is tariffs and a trade war. How about instead of a trade war, we should be talking about how the Chinese can intimately invest in the U.S. economy. For example, what if China were to give the U.S. a hundred-billion dollar interest free loan to rebuild our withering infrastructure? That would be a way to level the playing field, and even the score, without giving up our economic security or national pride”.  

I go back to thinking about Israel again, and can’t imagine what the world would look like if Israel and the U.S. didn’t work together. Even if we remained friends but kept a greater distance, so much would be lost from the closeness of our alliance. 

 makes me wonder what it would be like if the U.S. were to become that kind of close with China. Even beyond pursuing and respecting each other as we pursue our own national interests, what would it look like if the U.S. and China were to develop a mutually beneficial friendship that blended our interests and economies, with a closeness similar to that which the U.S. shares with Israel. If the leading two global superpowers were to truly come together, it seems absolutely anything would be possible. 

 asks us to consider this question, and to imagine a better world.

jewishjournal.com

BetterAngels A Better World

As the world’s two superpowers are trying to resolve trade differences, a feature documentary on the China-US relations premiered in Beijing on Saturday, November 24, 2018.

“Better Angels” was directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Malcolm Clarke.

The movie starts with a warning from the now 95-year-old Henry Kissinger looking directly into the camera saying, “If we are to clash, it would be a disaster for the whole world.”

The film suggests the two countries could establish better bilateral ties by learning from many cross-cultural cases and personal exchanges.

The premier attracted many guests, including Terry Branstad, the US Ambassador to China and William Zarit, the Chairman of the Board for the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

“Better Angels”was aired in the US in October, and is expected to hit Chinese theaters in January 2019.

The movie premiere was followed by a seminar where moviemakers and several scholars discussed the China-US bilateral relations. The seminar was hosted by the Center for China and Globalization, a renowned Chinese think tank.

Movie on China-US relations premieres in Beijing

chinaplus.cri.cn

Oscar winner Malcolm Clarke’s documentary features heavyweights like Kissinger and Tung Chee-hwa, but it is the ordinary Chinese and Americans – ‘accidental diplomats’ – who really steal the show

 at it, it is hard to be an optimist these days about 

, arguably one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in the world.

’s trade war against China has already shown signs of spilling over to poison the overall relationship, raising international concerns that a wider conflict between the two countries may be on the cards.

The latest worrying signal, which has emerged over the past few weeks, is that US universities have begun to terminate academic exchanges and links with Chinese counterparts citing concerns over intellectual property and academic freedom. This is an ominous sign as academic exchanges are part of the essential civil society bonds which help underpin and strengthen bilateral ties.

Amid all the doom and gloom, however, it is heartening to see the release of a 92-minute documentary titled 

, produced by a team of American and Chinese filmmakers, aimed at projecting a little hope and positivity.

The movie, directed and narrated by two-time Oscar winning director Malcolm Clarke, features political and business heavyweights including three former US secretaries of state (Henry Kissinger, James Baker, and Madeleine Albright), Tung Chee-hwa (Hong Kong’s first chief executive), and Ronnie Chan (a billionaire property tycoon).

But their punditry on the importance of bilateral ties mainly serves as a background to the poignant and intimate portrayal of ordinary Chinese and Americans who have become “accidental diplomats” in helping to enhance civil society bonds between the two countries.

They include a former US marine from Texas who moved to Shanghai to teach English and American football and married a Chinese woman; a blind Chinese masseur turned global backpacker who travelled throughout the United States where he received kindness and hospitality from strangers; a Chinese abacus teacher who helps American children learn arithmetic, and two American women whose lives were changed by working in a Chinese copper factory in Wilcox County of Alabama, one of the poorest areas of the US.

The way their stories are interwoven and shot makes these characters and their tales touching and uplifting as they try to learn more about one another’s culture and differences. Anyone who watches the movie will surely find at least one story or one character who tugs at their heartstrings.

For me, the most emotional scenes involved a young Chinese worker from a poor village in Yunnan, who chose to work on a bridge in a remote part of Ethiopia for three years so that he could make more money. He missed the birth of his son and because of the poor phone signals, he could only call his wife once a week (he would have to climb to the top of the mountains even to do that). When one of his calls finally gets through, the couple get so worked up they do not know what to say at first. One scene in particular, showing the young man sitting on a rock and bowing his head, is a real tear-jerker.

As Clarke said recently after one of the screenings, these stories show the dreams pursued by Chinese are no different from the American dream.

William Mundell, the businessman turned producer and a frequent traveller to China, came up with the documentary idea nearly five years ago to “shatter the myths that Americans have about China and Chinese have about America”.

The movie, originally envisioned to be completed in 18 months, took nearly five years and was shot in four continents.

The timing of its release – it opened this month in New York and Los Angeles on a limited basis and a wider US release is planned for January – could not have been better because of the tensions between the two countries.

Mundell said even though the movie was planned in the Barack Obama years, long before Trump was on the political scene, anti-China sentiments had already gained momentum across a wide spectrum in the US and Trump had merely capitalised on this.

As Trump’s China-bashing has stoked the curiosity and apprehension of ordinary Americans about the country, he hoped that the movie could have a similar impact to 

, the runaway hit on global warming by former US vice-president Al Gore.

Indeed, one can certainly argue that the relationship between China and US is no less significant for the world than global warming.

Whether Mundell is overly optimistic remains to be seen but initial signs look promising. Since his team uploaded a trailer on Facebook two weeks ago, it has had more than 3.1 million views.

The movie is expected to be very popular in China when it opens on 2,000 screens next month, not least because of its topical content, well-written script, well-shot scenes and Clarke’s masterly directing.

The Chinese, both the ordinary and the powers that be, are often fascinated by how foreigners view the Chinese and their interactions with the outside world through their own lenses, free from the usual Chinese-style, in-your-face propaganda.

Han Yi, the Chinese journalist-turned-producer helped track down some unique and interesting characters for the movie including the blind Chinese backpacker and the former US marine.

Inevitably, given the tensions, some American critics have faulted Mundell and his team for focusing largely on individual success stories and their trials and tribulations, without mentioning the overall context which has contributed to the worsening ties and the deep social and political problems plaguing both countries.

At post-screening discussions, Mundell and Clarke have been challenged by audience members about the movie’s failure to address China’s crackdown on dissent, lack of press freedom, and human rights issues in Xinjiang and Tibet.

They counter that those issues have been well covered in the mainstream media and their movie aims to go beyond the daily diet of suspicion on both sides and instead look through the lenses of ordinary people who are seeking to bridge the distance – physical and metaphysical – between them.

Ordinary people can do extraordinary things, as demonstrated by the famous chance meeting between a US ping pong player and a group of Chinese players in April 1971, which led to the eventual establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

As the countries approach the 40th anniversary of formal relations in January, let’s hope the movie marks a new start in bridging the misunderstandings of these two peoples.

Wang Xiangwei is the former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post. He is now based in Beijing as editorial adviser to the paper

Better Angels is to China-US ties what Inconvenient Truth is to global warming

scmp.com

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- "LA (Los Angeles) is the perfect city to screen this documentary," said California's Senate President pro Tempore Emeritus, Kevin De Leon, referring to the new U.S.-China documentary film, "Better Angels."

The film, directed by two-time Academy Award-winning documentarian Malcolm Clarke, was screened at Hotel Indigo Los Angeles on Tuesday.

"The City of Angels recognizes that diversity is our strength. We will work shoulder-to-shoulder with people of every color, every creed, every religion and every nationality to keep our economy strong," the Senator affirmed.

The film's title pays homage to the 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and his inspiring inaugural address when Lincoln sought to cool the raging passions of his fellow countrymen who were hell-bent on hurtling toward a devastating civil war.

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection," Lincoln warned at his inauguration on March 4, 1861.

"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature," he advised.

Seeking to avert war, Lincoln used his speech to plead with all Americans - North and South - to let the "bonds of affection" of the "better angels of our nature" overcome their seemingly intractable differences in order to preserve the future and promise of the newly-minted American Union.

Considered the wisest of American presidents, it is no surprise that his speech would inspire a documentary that seeks to lead the East and the West back from their recent path of discord and conflict, to one of harmony and mutual prosperity.

"I was motivated to make the American and Chinese people, as distinct from our governments, true stakeholders," said one of the film's producers, Bill Mundell, former economics professor-turned-filmmaker, at the film's screening, sponsored by the China General Chamber of Commerce-USA/LA on Tuesday.

"Obviously our relationship has reached a critical inflexion point. In my view, it is more important than ever to have an informed citizenry of ordinary Americans and Chinese who can act as 'Accidental Diplomats' and bridge the divide between us before it's too late," he said.

The film seeks to show an enlightened alternative to isolationism, nationalism, and cold war posturing.

It takes classic talking-head interviews that range from high-ranking government heavyweights -- former U.S. secretaries of state, congressmen, and captains of industry -- to blue-collar workers, and combines them with touching personal day-to-day stories of folks-next-door from both countries opening their hearts and minds to find their way across the great cultural and political divide.

At root, "Better Angels" is not a film that explores the thornier challenges yet to be ironed out between the U.S. and Chinese governments, but instead focuses on those ordinary individuals from both countries who have, by accident or design, created personal bridges between the two nations and opened up pathways for many others to experience greater cross-cultural exchanges, understanding and respect.

Former U.S. Republican Congressman David Dreier who has been assisting the film since it began, pointed out that the two nations' fates, trade and economies are already so inextricably entwined that anything we do to punish the other will inevitably boomerang back on ourselves.

"Chinese do not think of America or Americans as the enemy. They think of us as allies, which historically we've always been," he told Xinhua.

The former congressman showed up to support the film even though he had just lost his family's ancestral home in Malibu in the devastating wildfire in Southern California this month.

"I intend to rebuild my home and rebuild our relationship with China," said Dreier, adding that it's helpful for preserving global stability and prosperity.

"China is transforming from the world's largest manufacturer to the world's largest market. With twice the number of consumers as our country has people, this is the exact wrong time to create conflict between our two great nations," Mundell told Xinhua.

"The Chinese are predisposed to buy American products, but that will change if this conflict escalates. Why jeopardize our own wellbeing and future prosperity?" he said.

"Here in LA and 7,000 miles (11,265 km) away in China, we recognize that our people share the same dream: to prosper, to provide a better future for our children and their children, to be able to put food on the table and roof over their heads after a hard day's work. To drive global developments in technology, medicine and infrastructure," De Leon summed it up.

Much like the film, he promised, "As long as we continue to talk to each other, to embrace each other, accept each other, and learn from each other, we will be successful."

Spotlight: The City of Angels welcomes U.S.-China documentary „BetterAngels“

xinhuanet.com

Cui Tiankai, at film screening is hopeful about Sino-US relations

The strained China-US relations need what Abraham Lincoln referred to as the touch "by the better angels of our nature", and such "better angels" are still there, Beijing's top envoy to Washington Cui Tiankai said Tuesday evening at the screening of a documentary film.

"Over the past year we have heard enough of trade war threats, assertions about strategic rivalry, saber rattling in the South China Sea and even unfounded accusations against Chinese students and scholars," Ambassador Cui said at the screening of the film "Better Angels" in Washington, which followed a panel discussion.

The event was sponsored by China General Chamber of Commerce – USA (CGCC). The event brought together about 150 US and Chinese business executives, policy makers and scholars to discuss the importance of the China-US relationship.

"It looks as if rivalry and confrontation became the prevailing aspect for our path ahead, and people cannot but again call for the touch of 'better angels'," he said.

He said that sometimes people wonder if the angels have just vanished or if they are overshadowed by the dark side of human nature.

However, after seeing Better Angels, the latest documentary on China-US relations, Cui said he believed "the better angels are still there".

"They are always there, rain or shine," he said.

The documentary was written and directed by two-time Academy Award winner Malcolm Clarke and produced by William Mundell and Han Yi.

Five years in the making, the 90-minute film features compelling interviews with some of the world's most celebrated thought leaders in the field of Sino-US relations: former US secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Madeleine Albright and former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd.

It also highlighted stories of ordinary people, like a former US Marine who teaches English and coaches American football in a Chinese school, a Chinese abacus teacher working in the United States, helping American students with arithmetic, and a Chinese entrepreneur who funded the Sino-US Friendship House in Muscatine, Iowa.

"From these ordinary men and women, we know why the China-US relationship is firmly grounded and why we should be confident in its future," the ambassador said.

In poetic prose, Cui spoke highly of the part that the ordinary and great people of China and the US play in forging ahead the bilateral relations.

"When our relations are smooth sailing, they will be there injecting greater driving force; and when our relations are at a low ebb, it is also our people who will firmly support the bonds of friendship and turn the tide of China-US relations," he said.

By the same token, over the past four decades, when China-US relations suffered setbacks, risked being strained, with their future cast into doubt, the people of the two countries would be there, "quietly but persistently", doing their part, lifting it out of the quagmire and moving it forward, Cui said.

"Therefore, there is no reason why we should not stay optimistic and confident," he said.

"I am convinced that the better angels in the documentary and among our two peoples will always come to guide us to a better path of the China-US relationship and move it forward for the benefit of our peoples and of the entire international community."

Speaking at the screening event, producer William Mundell said the film is the untold story of the "true potential" of the US-China relationship.

"It's about the wider benefits of US-China cooperation; it's about the dark side of globalization for the Chinese people, and it's about the common humanity that drives us together," he said.

‚Better angels‘ still in wings

“I use film when nothing else works.” That is the mantra of William Mundell, the producer of “Better Angels,” a 90-minute documentary film that deals with the Sino-US relationship.

When it comes to an international issue as thorny as US-China bilateral relations, a film might just be what is needed to improve the association between the two countries.

It is something the 55-year-old American, who’s in Shanghai for the film and TV festival to promote the movie, is hoping for.

“We made this film out of a certain frustration. If you look at the recent summitries between the US and China, all the countless conferences and endless studies on Sino-US cooperation, little has been done to move the needle on the relationship between the two nations,” Mundell tells Shanghai Daily.

“The Chinese have a saying that roughly translates to: ‘If you can focus on the most important issues, the secondary issues will settle themselves quite easily.’ The converse is also true — if you don’t focus on that most important issue, you’ll accomplish very little. That is unfortunately the sorry state of the US-China relationship. This film is an opening salvo in an effort to change that.”

Mundell’s mantra lends itself some credence. In 2009, his first documentary, “Gerrymandering,” saw the people in California vote to terminate an age-long controversial voting policy in their state, where politicians could choose their own voters by demarcating their own district lines.

“For 20 years, good-minded citizens would try to change this system and fail. The film allowed people to understand what was going on and it changed their perspectives,” says Mundell.

“If we could solve a problem as vexing as gerrymandering in California, maybe a movie can also help change the direction of the US-China relationship. My motivation to be involved in film is to change the direction of something that isn’t going well.”

To Mundell, it is paramount that despite their frictional differences, the two nations understand the seemingly limitless potential of their relationship.

“I think the most consequential and important bilateral relationship in the world is the one between United States and China. If anything, we have neglected it. That was the purpose of making this film to draw attention to it.”

Mundell’s interest in China was sparked by a business trip to the country in 1991, which landed him a huge deal with the State Statistical Bureau.

“That contract I won (in China) had a very consequential effect on the value on my company,” he laughs. “I realized this was something I should not be ignoring and that I should learn more about. I began to take regular trips to China to learn more about the country and I met some good Chinese friends.”

In the 25 years since his first trip, Mundell has observed China’s rise as an economic power on the world stage.

“When I first came in 1991, I was stunned by the poverty. I remember seeing mostly bicycles on the roads and no five-star hotels. I thought to myself, ‘here I am in the capital of the most populous country in the world and it really is an underdeveloped country.’

“But over the years there has been a spectacular increase in the living standards of not just the top-tier of Chinese, but the middle-class as well.”

To Mundell, China’s rise as an economic power is the very issue that many Americans have a bone to pick with.

“The point we make in the film is that it’s true — America has lost a lot of jobs to China.

“There is a lot of frustration that exist among Americans in this aspect. What really forms Americans’ opinion about China right now is this perception of the loss of jobs to them.”

As a statement of intent from Mundell to change perspectives, he hired two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Malcolm Clarke to spearhead “Better Angels.”

It had a budget of US$3 million and took over three years to film, spanning across four continents — Asia, North America, Europe and Africa — and accumulating over 850 hours of footages.

The film features interviews with prominent world figures such as former US secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, and Tung Cheehwa, the first chief executive of Hong Kong.

But the primary focus is on ordinary American and Chinese citizens.

“We’ve failed to invest in the core infrastructure of the relationship — how we feel about each other. So we decided to look through the lens of ordinary Americans and Chinese,” says Mundell.

Indeed, there are certain intriguing characters in the film that bridge the divide between the two nations, one of whom is Memo Mata, a former US soldier who moved to Shanghai after experiencing difficulties back home. He is currently teaching Chinese students at a high school and coaching American football.

In the film, Mata describes his life in Shanghai as realizing the American dream.

Mundell explains: “We had two criteria in choosing our stories — they had to have compelling characters and that they could shatter myths about perceptions of the two countries.”

In the case of shattering myths, the production team traveled to one of America’s poorest counties — Thomasville, Alabama — to cover the stories of two American women who found jobs when a Chinese company opened a copper plant in the area.