ASCENSION

By Kingdon JESSICA

VISIT FILMS - as SALES

Documentary - Completed 2021

An exploration of the pursuit of wealth and the paradox of progress in China, ASCENSION examines what living the so-called "Chinese Dream" looks like today.

Festivals
& Awards

Tribeca 2021
Best Documentary Feature
Tribeca 2021
Best New Documentary Director (Albert Maysles Award)
    • Year of production
    • 2021
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • USA
    • Languages
    • MANDARIN
    • Duration
    • 99 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Kingdon JESSICA
    • Producer(s)
    • Kira SIMON-KENNEDY, Jessica KINGDON, Nathan TRUESDELL
    • Synopsis
    • ASCENSION is 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 how each level supports and makes possible the next while recognizing the contemporary "Chinese Dream" remains an elusive fantasy for most.