FEET UNBOUND - North American Premiere!
Khee-Jin Ng
Long March Films
Documentary
Australia, 2007, 87 min.

Sponsored by the Australian Embassy, Washington DC

Thu., Aug. 7, 11 AM, at the Drama Workshop, Salem Fine Arts Center

Synopsis from the Filmmaker:

A young woman retraces the footsteps of China's female soldiers of The Long March and encounters untold stories of courage and hope in the face of extreme deprivation and brutality. This is the never-been-told story of the Chinese Red Army's teenage female soldiers of The Long March—a massive military retreat of over 200,000 troops on foot over 12, 500 kilometers that lasted from 1934 to 1937.

Elly, a 28-year old journalist from Beijing, embarks on a 5,000-kilometer odyssey that takes her from Cangxi in Central China to Xingxingxia in the Gobi Desert northwest of China. Along the way, she uncovers the tragic and chilling story of the destruction of the Western Route Army—the greatest military failure of the Chinese Red Army. This episode of the Long March history is largely unknown outside of China.

As she sets out in search of history, she is forced to confront her own identity as a modern Chinese woman.

This film's backdrop is war, which means there are descriptions of violence and mass slaughter. It is disturbing at times and should not be viewed by children or young teens. The filmmaker uses the device of an appealing narrator-interviewer, Elly, to extract first hand accounts from the surviving female soldiers, now in their 80s. The survivors' stories are both poignant and tough. -SC