Filmmaker Nanfu Wang on Government Surveillance, Immersive Filmmaking and "Hooligan Sparrow"

Activist Ye Haiyan, otherwise known as "Hooligan Sparrow," and the main subject of Nanfu Wang's film. Image courtesy of the filmmaker.

Activist Ye Haiyan, otherwise known as "Hooligan Sparrow," and the main subject of Nanfu Wang's film. Image courtesy of the filmmaker.

Professor Betsy West spoke to filmmaker Nanfu Wang about her film "Hooligan Sparrow," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016. The film follows Ye Haiyan, more widely known as “Hooligan Sparrow," a Chinese activist protesting the case of six young girls who had been sexually abused by their school principal.

Marked as enemies of the state, Haiyan and the women protesting alongside her were branded enemies of the state, suffered constant government surveillance and interrogation, harassment and imprisonment over the course of their fight and the film.

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