International Competition

Ascension

Jessica Kingdon
Screening time  
07.04. / Thursday, 15:00 - 17:00 Theatre 2  
07.04. / Thursday, 22:00 - 00:00 Theatre 1 Ticket

An impressionistic portrait of China’s industrial supply chain that reveals the country’s growing class divide through staggering observations of labor, consumerism and wealth. The documentary portrays capitalism in China across the levels of its operation, from the crudest mine to the most rarefied forms of leisure. Accordingly, the film is structured in three parts, ascending through the levels of the capitalist structure: workers running factory production, the middle-class training for and selling to aspirational consumers, and the elites reveling in a new level of hedonistic enjoyment. In traveling up the rungs of China’s social ladder we see the elusiveness of contemporary "Chinese Dream".

Jessicakingdon

Jessica Kingdon

New York-based Jessica Kingdon is a Chinese-American director and producer named one of "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine and selected for the 2020 DOC NYC "40 Under 40" list. Her award-winning short Commodity City (2017) is an observational documentary about the world’s largest wholesale mall in Yiwu, China. It was shortlisted for a Cinema Eye Honor and has played at over 50 film festivals including Rotterdam, True/False and Sheffield. She co-directed the short It's Coming! (2020), which was supported by Rooftop Films, and Routine Island (2019), which is included in The Eyeslicer Season 2. Jessica’s producer credits include Tania Cypriano’s Born to Be (NYFF 2019), Ian Bell’s 808: How We Respond (Sheffield 2019), Nathan Truesdell’s The Water Slide (True/False 2018), and Johnny Ma’s Old Stone (Berlinale 2016). She is a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective.

General sponsor

Ascension

USA
2021, 96'

Directed by:
Jessica Kingdon

Cinematography:
Jessica Kingdon, Nathan Truesdell

Edited by:
Jessica Kingdon

Music:
Dan Deacon

Producers:
Kira Simon-Kennedy, Jessica Kingdon, Nathan Truesdell

Festivals & Awards:

Oscar Nomination (2022)
Tribeca FF: Best Documentary Feature; Best New Documentary Director (2021)
Hamptons IFF: Best Documentary Feature (2021)
Warsaw FF (2021)
Raindance FF (2021)
Talinn Black Nights (2021)

Contact:

Visit Films
Tarek Shoukri
ts@visitfilms.com