Stourwater Pictures

Films

Awards:

CINE Golden Eagle

Audience Choice Award 
    - Gig Harbor Film Festival

 

Official Selection:

Seattle International Film Festival, Pan-Asia Film Festival, Heartland Film Festival, Bend Film Festival, Cucalorus Film Festival, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

 

Screenings:

National Press Club, European Parliament, Foreign Correspondents Clubs (in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong), Stanford University, UC Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive, USC, UMass, UNC Chapel Hill, DePaul, University of Washington, University of Oregon, University of Illinois, NYC theatrical run at the QUAD Cinemas. 

 

Subjects:

China Studies, Asian Studies, Political Science, History, International Relations, Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, Economics. 

 

 

“A remarkable story.”

–The New York Times

 

“Riveting! What delivery. What a tale.”

–Dorothy J. Solinger,
Professor, Dept. of Political Science,
University of California, Irvine

 

“A fascinating perspective on the greatest revolution of the twentieth century...”

–Michael H. Hunt,
Emerson Professor Emeritus, 
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

 

“Anyone wanting to understand the trials and tribulations of modern China should see this documentary.”

–Terry Lautz,
Syracuse University

 

The Revolutionary

THE REVOLUTIONARY  has its own website that includes news, screenings, reviews, press material, photos,  history, and more. You can see it by clicking here.

 • • •

Sidney Rittenberg arrived in China as a GI Chinese language expert at the end of World War II. Discharged there, he joined the Chinese Communist Party, and was an active participant in the Chinese communist revolution and its aftermath. An intimate of the Party’s leadership, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he gained prominence at the Broadcast Administration, one of the most important agencies of government. But in the convulsions of a giant country constantly reinventing itself, he twice ran afoul of the leadership, and served a total of 16 years in solitary confinement. He returned to the United States in 1980.

Rittenberg captivates the audience with his exceptional intellect, uncompromising honesty, and engaging personality. Over a five-year period, award-winning former-CBS journalist and China specialist, Irv Drasnin, interviewed Rittenberg to produce a compelling, complex and unique understanding of the 20th century’s biggest revolution. From Sid first meeting Mao in the caves of Yan’an, to his becoming famous and powerful during the Cultural Revolution, to his battling insanity in solitary, his journey and his profound insight illuminate a much greater history—a history few Chinese are aware of, let alone many Americans, told by an American who was there.

(Running time – 92 minutes)

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