Skirts On Fire

Up The Yangtze (2007)

Don’t make comparisons of Canada and the US.  Don’t talk about Quebec Independence.  You have to love a doc that can define Anglo-Canadian identity so summarily.  These are two of the rules defined by the manager of a cruise ship that takes Western tourists up the Yangtze river in China for a farewell tour.  With the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the water level was slated to rise a total of 175m.  That is fine if you happen to not live next to the river, your father a poor farmer who can’t afford to move his family.  Yu Shui is the elder daughter in just such a family.  At 16, with dreams of becoming a scientist but unable to afford high school, she goes to work on one of these cruise ships to make $200 a month – the equivalent to her father’s annual income.

I like a doc that can drop your jaw in the first view minutes.  Between shots of the beautiful scenery and bridges spanning the Yangtze to the concept that a family couldn’t afford to move, this one nails it.

http://uptheyangtze.com/

http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyesunday/uptheyangtze/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam

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