Zeitgeist Acquires Chinese Boxing Film

Zeitgeist Films has acquired U. S. rights to CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT, the latest film from Chinese director Yung Chang, whose celebrated film UP THE YANGTZE was also distributed by Zeitgeist. The film is set in southwestern China, where a master coach recruits poor rural teenagers and turns them into Western-style boxing champions. Through hard work and discipline, these boys and girls come of age, trained in the art of boxing and the game of life. They are filled with Olympic dreams, hoping to become China’s next amateur heroes.  The top student boxers face dramatic choices as they graduate–should they fight for the collective good as amateurs or for themselves and their own personal gain as professionals? It’s a metaphor for the choices that everyone faces now, in the New China. In a statement, Zeitgeist co-presidents Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo expressed being “overwhelmed by the young, brilliant filmmakers who are dedicated to bringing out the complexities of China during this turbulent time.”

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