Yao jie huang hou (1994)

A mostly great human rights document
Very much above average as documentaries go; MOVING THE MOUNTAIN reuinites several of the leaders of the student pro-democracy movement that ultimately escalated into the Tiananmen Square massacre. I can remember being a college student in North Carolina at the time - a different world for sure - but days of seeing the escalation galvanized us all, as we saw people of our own generation (granted, in a very different cultural and political atmosphere) standing up for something, and keenly wanted them to succeed. Suffice to say that we were devastated by the ultimate outcome.

Apted has structured MOVING THE MOUNTING ingeniously, cutting between interview footage and news footage of the escalating protests and massacre, and it's both extremely tense filmmaking, and extremely moving. My lone gripe, a common one among documentarians - allowing the camera to linger a bit too long on others' tears - to me this seems a bit interpersonally intrusive, and also intellectually puts too fine of a point on points already eloquently expressed. This is finely crafted enough - both as a human rights document, and as a sharply constructed film, that he needn't stoop to pulling tears from an audience already greatly moved.

This noted, it's also not the entire film by a longshot, and any one interested in human rights struggles around the globe should really make an effort to see this.

-David Alston

Moving the Mountain dvd
Excellent work.It is just breath taking how people were fighting for their democracy.Hats of to their courage.

The personal lives of the leaders of Tiananmen Square.
Very moving account of the personal lives and struggles of five leaders in this truly grass roots movement. As a documentary it really sparkled because it was not at all dry or melodramatic, and yet there was a lot of interesting detail. Really gives you a lot of food for thought.