All Eyes and Ears

This timely documentary is a story of three people: Gracie Mei Huntsman, a teenager whose adoptive father's job takes her back to the nation where she was abandoned to an orphanage at birth, the victim of China's one-child policy and preference for boys; newly appointed US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr., who inherits the job at a time of rising tensions between the two countries; and Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer whose activism led to China putting him under house arrest and who now seeks US asylum. China itself becomes a fourth character, a world superpower engaged in a volatile relationship with its western counterpart, the United States. In her feature documentary debut, director Vanessa Hope's foreign-policy and prior filmmaking experience in China comes into play as she gracefully weaves the disparate strands of her characters' stories into an exciting and constantly changing saga of politics, ideology, identity, and high-stakes diplomacy. (Mill Valley Film Festival)