Shows: 3/11 2:00 PM (Cal), 3/12 2:45 PM (Cam 12)

This is not an easy film to describe. It’s a documentary, but it’s sprinkled through with animations and commentary that verge on the absurd. The ultimate effect is a surprisingly evenhanded look at a man generally mentioned in the same breath as dictators like Stalin and Hitler. The film follows Mao Zedong from his youth as a farmer to his death as the leader of the People’s Republic of China. We get to see the many fascets of the man, from his idealistic hopes for a bright future for his country to his womanizing habits and refusal to brush his teeth. The filmmakers don’t shy away from his good points or his bad ones, presenting everything they have time for with no apparant agenda of judgement.
There are documentary footage, smart-alecky animations, and quotes from Mao’s writing, blended together into an intelligent and irreverant portrait of a complex and historically important man. It is almost certainly unlike any documentary you have ever seen.