Up To The Mountain 
Down To The Village
Documentary (52 min.)

It was perhaps the largest youth movement in human history. In 1968, China's Communist leader Mao Zedong sent more than 17 million teenagers "up to the mountain, down to the village" to learn from the peasants. His goal was to build the perfect socialist society. Many "sent-down" youth participated eagerly, driven by revolutionary zeal and devotion to Chairman Mao. Others saddled with "bad" family backgrounds (offspring of "rightists," "reactionaries," "intellectuals" and other "class enemies") were forced to go. Many stayed in the villages for a decade or more.
The documentary Up to the Mountain, Down to the Village returns with three members of China's "sent-down" generation, now U.S. citizens, to the remote villages where Mao sent them three decades ago. They also bring along their American-born children, exposing them to the harsh realities of life for China's peasants.
Three decades later, profoundly influenced by the years they spent living in the villages, they recount the loneliness, despair, and physical hardship they endured in unfamiliar surroundings, separated from their families for the first time. For many, it was their first exposure to the wrenching hunger and dire poverty that were normal in the lives of tens of millions of Chinese peasants during the Mao era. Most had no experience in agriculture, and were unprepared for the physical labor required of them. In addition, peasants often greeted them with hostility, viewing them as simply more mouths to feed.
The program blends never-before-seen archival material with new footage of the lush rice paddies, hardscrabble peasants and cramped living conditions of rural China today. Up to the Mountain, Down to the Village explores the revolutionary forces of China's past that continue to shape that nation today.