United States: Screenings of the Movie Sandstorm in Honolulu, Hawaii Reveal the Torture of Falun Gong Practitioners

On April 1st & 2nd, 2007, Falun Dafa practitioners in Hawaii showed the feature film Sandstorm (Drama, 2004, 76min, Chinese w/ English subtitles) to an audience of approximately 150-160 people in Honolulu. These two free movie screenings were held in a 200-seat auditorium on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. A representative of New Tang Dynasty Films from New York hosted a Question & Answer sessions following the screenings.

Many in the audience were touched by the movie, which reveals the atrocities committed against Falun Gong practitioners in China. One audience member burst into tears and cried hard outside the theatre afterward as she expressed sympathy for a Dafa practitioner whose mother, also a practitioner, has recently been arrested in China for a third time on charges of distributing copies of the publication "Minghui Weekly".

Others in the audience said they were appalled that China was awarded the 2008 Olympics despite the persecution of Falun Gong, and felt that this was repeating the history of Nazi Germany hosting the Olympics in 1936; they wanted to know what they could do to appeal to the U.S. Government and the international community to boycott the Beijing Olympics. One woman suggested writing letters informing the media that she would not watch the 2008 Games on TV.

Most people seemed to agree that writing letters to governments and corporations doing business with China is an effective tool in helping to bring this crisis to an end and that every letter makes a difference. A visiting scholar from China had been in Hawaii for only three days but was fortunate to attend the movie screening and learn the facts of the persecution, something not permitted by the Communist regime, which controls all forms of media and blocks the Internet in China.

A man asked if the Chinese government might threaten people outside China, such as audience members like him, and the host informed him of the various acts of spying, sabotage, and violence committed against Falun Gong by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spies and agents of the Chinese consulates around the globe, as revealed by multiple Chinese government defectors in Australia and Canada. A young man asked about the current situation regarding Falun Gong in China and was made aware of the unprecedented cruelty of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners that has been revealed over the past year. When asked, the film representative also shared his opinion that the economic success of China has only emboldened the audacity of the CCP to escalate its atrocities against Falun Gong practitioners, and that the top-down CCP-run system in China has led to the promotion of those police officers and officials who persecute Falun Gong most fervently, and the dismissal, harassment and imprisonment of those people who stand up for Falun Gong or say things contrary to the Party line.

Many in the audience naturally could not understand why the Chinese government would persecute the peaceful Falun Gong meditation practice, but when they were made more aware of the bloody history of the Chinese Communist Party, which is responsible for the deaths of 60-80 million Chinese citizens (http://ninecommentaries.com/), they quickly came to realise that the Chinese communists do not put the same value on life that normal people do. The film representative also pointed out that besides Falun Gong, the Party also persecutes other ideologies that believe in a higher authority than the CCP, such as Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, as well as other free-thinking groups like pro-democracy advocates, human rights groups, environmentalists, lawyers who defend persecuted groups, reporters who dare to report on sensitive topics, independent labour union organisers, etc. It was also discussed how the so-called "five legal religions" in China give many people a false sense of freedom, when these are actually nothing more than strictly monitored puppet organisations of the CCP, meant to subdue criticism and make the situation even more confusing.

Many others were made aware of the persecution of Falun Gong because of the efforts of about a half-dozen local volunteer practitioners who came together to distribute over 2000 movie postcards, 3000 flyers and put up over 130 colour movie posters during the two weeks prior to the screenings. Practitioners also sent media releases to the relevant news organisations in Hawaii, advertised in free newspaper events listings and via radio PSAs. They also set up a booth in Chinatown on Sunday, and emailed invitations to local government officials, educators and NGOs.

Before the screening, a professor at the university introduced the film representative, and afterward, on their way out, audience members picked up lotus flowers made by a local practitioner as well as copies of "Bloody Harvest," an independent investigation into allegations of organ harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China by David Matas and David Kilgour (http://investigation.go.saveinter.net/). After the success of this event, Dafa practitioners in Hawaii wanted to know what other films about the persecution are available and are considering making film screenings a regular part of their local truth clarification efforts.