Public screening and conversation with Professor Yiman Wang.
Presented by the Film and Digital Media Department.
Date: Monday, February 10, 2025
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Communications 150 (Studio C)
Watch the trailer at https://www.americanbabyfilm.com/
DESCRIPTION: Tracing the underground birth tourism industry from Beijing and Shanghai to Los Angeles, HOW TO HAVE AN AMERICAN BABY is a feature-length creative documentary that takes us behind the closed doors of the booming shadow economy catering to Chinese tourists who travel to the U.S. to give birth – in order to obtain U.S. citizenship for their babies. Told through a series of intimately observed, interwoven storylines, we meet expectant mothers, maternity hotel operators and operator wannabes, local doctors and civic officials, birth tourism agents in China, and the nannies, cooks, and chauffeurs that fuel this industry. Inside bedrooms, delivery rooms, and private family meetings, the story of a hidden global economy emerges – depicting the aspirations and anxieties, fortunes and tragedies that befall the ordinary people caught in the web of its influence.
BIO: Leslie Tai is a Chinese-American filmmaker from San Francisco, Ca. Her shorts have premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, MoMA’s Doc Fortnight, IDFA, and Visions du Réel. From 2006-2011, Tai made and exhibited work in the underground Beijing documentary movement, as a student of Chinese filmmaker Wu Wenguang and participant artist of Caochangdi Workstation. Her short film THE PRIVATE LIFE OF FENFEN (2013), a multi-layered representation of a Chinese migrant worker’s video diaries, won Best Film awards at Kasseler Dokfest and Images Festival. Her work is supported by organizations such as Creative Capital, Field of Vision, Fork Films, SFFILM, California Humanities, Firelight Media, and fellowships such as MacDowell, Yaddo, Bogliasco, NYFF’s Artist Academy, and Berlinale Talents. HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN BABY is Tai’s feature debut.