Audience review at the New York premiere of ‘Humanity’s worst crime taking place in China’
Documentary film ‘State-Owned Janggi’ screened in Manhattan’s East Village
“A film with a heavy heart but full of hope… “An incident that everyone should know about”
A film highlighting forced organ harvesting in China was screened in New York, USA, bringing both shock and catharsis to citizens.
On the 9th, the premiere of the documentary film ‘State Organ’ directed by Chinese director Raymond Zhang was held at Angelica Cinema, an independent movie theater in East Village, southeastern Manhattan, New York. This area, along with Soho, where artists gather, represents the diverse culture, beauty, and youth of New York.
The movie’s title, ‘State-Owned Organs’, is an expression that compares state-owned (state-owned) enterprises such as state-owned banks and state-owned farms found in China. It alludes to the tragic situation of a communist country where even human organs cannot be privately owned and can be ‘harvested’ by the regime at any time.
Forced organ harvesting is a terrible crime in which a person’s eyes, heart, kidneys, etc. are unilaterally removed without consent. Organ donation is a noble act that must be supported by complete voluntariness, but in China, the fact that organs are procured through forced harvesting rather than voluntary donation became known in the mid-2000s through revelations by people involved.
Since the donation is not voluntary, violence, one-sided coercion, and even artificial brain death are used. According to international human rights organizations, it has been revealed that state authorities, including public security and judicial authorities, have been carrying out extensive forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in prisons throughout China over the past 20 years.
Based on a true story, this film traces in a calm tone the journey of two families looking for their family member who suddenly disappeared in 2000. As they rush to find their loved ones, they are shocked to discover that the communist regime has built an industrial enterprise like a huge organ harvesting farm, raising its own people like livestock.
However, while the film deals with forced organ harvesting, which human rights activists deplored as ‘unprecedented evil’ and ‘the worst crime of humanity’, it shows solidarity, comfort, and resilience through the story of a family that does not lose love and hope in the face of hopeless situations. It is calm yet deeply moving.
Audience members who watched the movie said that they were glad that they learned of the terrible crimes being committed by the regime in China, even if it was too late, and that more people should know about this incident.
Nabil Hamati, a medical worker living in Brooklyn, said, “Until I saw this movie, I had no idea that the Chinese regime was forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience. I am once again grateful to live in a free America.” I expressed my feelings at the same time.
“I want to talk about love for humanity,” he said. “I was moved by the persistent efforts of the two families in the movie to find their loved ones.” “If there is no hope, people will give up and stay in the past. “It’s a good thing to have hope and keep walking strong,” he said, expressing his bright feelings.
Read More“Part of the liver and lungs disappeared”… British media reports on forced organ harvesting by the Chinese Communist Party
Hamati said, “I will inform other people about this incident,” and added, “It is not limited to certain countries and ethnic groups, but all of humanity must step forward to prevent it.”
His younger sister Maya, who watched the movie with him, said, “It is a useful movie.” She said, “While watching the movie, I thought that I should at least let people know that incidents like this are happening,” and “After World War II, we thought things like this would no longer happen, but they kept happening and are still happening.” He said.
“I think the more people know and the more they talk about it, the less things like this will happen in the shadows,” he added.
Maya Hamati, an audience member who attended the screening of the movie ‘State Organs’ at the Angelica Cinema in East Village, New York, USA, is being interviewed on the 9th (local time). | Samira Bouaou/The Epoch TimesIn the early 2000s, China suddenly emerged as a global mecca for expedition organ transplants. Many hospitals in China opened organ transplant centers and began accepting transplant recipients from home and abroad.
Brokers who arrange organ transplants to China have also become active. They advertised that the waiting period for transplant surgery, which would take months and years under normal circumstances in each country, can be resolved in just a few days in China.
A human rights group investigator disguised as a person wishing to undergo surgery called several Chinese hospitals and inquired, and the hospitals assured him that he could receive the transplant surgery within an abnormally short period of time.
Human rights groups’ investigation concluded that this is because the Chinese Communist Party treats prisoners in prison as ‘suppliers of living organs’ rather than ‘human beings’. The vast majority of these prisoners were not on death row or even criminals. Most of them were prisoners of conscience who were imprisoned for religious beliefs banned in China.
In 2020, after 1 year and 6 months of investigation and hearing, the China Tribunal, a Chinese investigative committee headquartered in London, England, concluded that the Chinese regime had been forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience for several years, with the main victims being Falun Gong. It was concluded “beyond a reasonable doubt” that he was a practitioner.
The committee, chaired by Geoffrey Nice, a British QC who served as a prosecutor at the International Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), and in which medical experts and human rights activists participated, took the form of a trial to ensure fairness in the investigation, and China appeared and defended the case. We requested that they do so, but China did not respond.
Falun Gong is a Chinese mind-body training method that was introduced to the public in China in the early 1990s and has since gained great popularity, with tens of millions of people practicing it. It consists of exercises and meditation techniques similar to Tai Chi, and is based on the principles of truth, goodness, and patience. The official name is ‘Falun Dafa’.
Lynn DiLorenzo, an audience member who attended the screening of the movie ‘State Organs’ on the 9th (local time), is being interviewed. | Samira Bouaou/The Epoch TimesLynn DiLorenzo, who runs a business in New York, could not hide her red eyes after the movie screening. She said she felt deep sadness and sorrow at the story of a female teacher who was sexually tortured before her organs were removed in prison.
DiLorenzo said, “Who is buying the organs of these people?” and “My heart was so heavy while watching the movie. Everyone needs to know what’s going on. “We must prevent this kind of genocide.”
Kevin Deus, who works as a senior advisor to the CEO of Reddit, the largest online community in the United States, said, “It is a sad and tragic event,” and the reason such a huge incident is still not well known in China and the international community is the dark side of technology and media development. pointed out.
“Today, with all the technology, all the media we have, things like this can still happen and be hidden,” Deus said. “(But) we need to talk about this and make people aware. “This is the power of movies that make them different from general media,” he emphasized.
Kevin Deus, an audience member who attended the screening of the movie ‘State Organs’ on the 9th (local time), is being interviewed. | Samira Bouaou/The Epoch TimesAt the preview that day, there was also time for conversation between the director and the audience. Chinese director Raymond Zhang, who won the Peabody Award for another work in 2015, said, “I have been receiving several threats since the film was released,” and described an incident that occurred during a screening in Taiwan last October.
Director Jang said, “I screened the movie in several movie theaters in Taiwan and received threats that explosives had been planted. The police launched an investigation, but there was no bomb, and after tracing the source of the threat, it was revealed that it was an overseas IP address bypassed through VPN. “He said.
It was assumed that the terrorist threat was a sabotage attempt by China, but director Zhang emphasized that the reason for filming the movie was not to criticize China. “I was born in China, and now I am abroad, but I still love it,” he said. “My hope is that the people there can live in a safer environment.”
The movie ‘National Janggi’ will be screened starting on the 15th at Cinema Village in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Whether or not it will be screened domestically has not yet been decided.
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