Crows & Sparrows is proud to co-present HOOLIGAN SPARROW at the 2016 Independent Film Festival Boston! The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in World Cinema Documentary.

The film has gone on to gain international attention at festivals including the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and the Full Frame Film Festival, and won the Les Blank Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. This will be the film’s area premiere in Boston.

Saturday, April 30 at 2:45pm at the Somerville Theatre – Buy Tickets

HOOLIGAN SPARROW
Directed by Nanfu Wang
Documentary, 94 minutes, 2016, China/US

Description: The danger is palpable as intrepid young filmmaker Nanfu Wang follows maverick activist Ye Haiyan (a.k.a. Hooligan Sparrow) and her like-minded band to Hainan Province in southern China, to protest the case of six elementary school girls who were sexually abused by their principal. Marked as enemies of the state, the activists are under constant government surveillance and face interrogation, harassment, and imprisonment. Sparrow, who gained notoriety with her advocacy work for sex workers’ rights, continues to champion girls’ and women’s rights and arms herself with the power and reach of social media. Wang becomes a target along with Sparrow, facing destroyed cameras and intimidation. Yet she bravely and tenaciously keeps shooting, guerrilla-style, with secret recording devices and hidden-camera glasses. In the process, she exposes a startling number of undercover security agents on the streets. Eventually, by smuggling footage out of the country, Wang is able tell the story of this group’s extraordinary journey and seemingly impossible battle.

HOOLIGAN SPARROW is Wang’s feature debut. She has surrounded herself with excellent company, including cowriter Mark Monroe (THE COVE) and executive producers Andy Cohen and Alison Klayman, the executive producer/director team who brought AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY to IFFBoston in 2012. – Learn more about the film