City of Life and Death (dir. Lu Chuan)
The New York Times reports that the Film Forum, one of the leading specialty theaters in New York City, has removed City of Life and Death, a movie about the 1937 Nanjing Massacre directed by Lu Chuan from their spring calendar. According to the article, National Geographic Entertainment, the North American distributor of the film, could not guarantee that a print of the film would be available in time for its scheduled release.
Film Forum will fill the empty slot on their calendar with The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom, by Ritu Sarin and Tenzig Sonam. The film chronicles a year in the life of the Dalai Lama. Ironically, it was this film that caused Chinese authorities to pull City of Life and Death from the Palm Spring International Film Festival in January when both films appeared on the program.
Although City of Life and Death is unavailable to view in the United States for the time being, dGenerate Films offers another film that probes into the tragic history of women forced into sexual service by the Japanese Army occupying China. Watch a trailer of Gai Shanxi and Her Sisters by Ban Zhongyi below, and find out more about this groundbreaking work of investigative filmmaking.