Film phase:Completed
SYNOPSIS
Imagine living a month without a “Made In China” label on anything you own or purchase. Two families living worlds apart in the same community collide when pride and mischief inspire Chinese immigrant Tom Xia to challenge the nearby Jones family to celebrate Christmas without any Chinese products. As the filmmakers follow fellow filmmaker Tom on this intimate journey, there’s comedy and tragedy, and ultimately questions of family, success, and consumerism that swirl around our idea of personal identity.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Xmas Without China is directed by Alicia Dwyer.
Alicia Dwyer directed Nine to Ninety, which premiered at Hot Docs 2013 and was nominated for the Best Short IDA Award (ITVS, Fledgling Fund). Alicia’s work appeared in theaters nationwide in Bully, for which she directed key material with the main character. Alicia was a director on The Calling, a flagship series of the 2010 Independent Lens season, and associate producer on the Emmy Award-nominated HBO series Pandemic: Facing AIDS, and the Academy Award-winning feature Into the Arms of Strangers. Alicia helped start Veracity Productions, an independent company where she is producing a taut, slow-burning thriller entitled Pocha.
NOW PLAYING
Xmas Without China premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival, where Pulitzer Prize-winning James V. Grimaldi of The Wall Street Journal called the film “a surprising, sweet, funny documentary that provokes without sermons.” The film won Best Comedy at the Friars Club Comedy Film Festival in New York, Best Environmental Theme at Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival, and the People’s Choice Award at Wild and Scenic Film Festival. Continuing to play in festivals in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Aspen, Telluride, San Diego, Chicago, and Edmonton, the film has also been programmed in series like Green Screens at The Film Society of Lincoln Center. The 2013 holiday season saw the broadcast premiere on PBS and the launch of the film’s educational distribution by Bullfrog Films. With Scorpion TV representing the film internationally, Xmas Without China has also aired in Norway, South Africa, the Philippines, and on British and Jet Airways.