Kira Simon-Kennedy, producer of both “Commodity City” and “Ascension,” recalls seeing the early cuts for “Commodity City” after being introduced to Kingdon at a dinner in New York. The film, “Commodity City,” bore many hallmarks of the style she’d later perfect in “Ascension,” exploring China’s role in the global economy through the lives of the Chinese traders who knit the supply chain together. Everyone was talking about China as this global superpower.” “But I also wanted to understand what China meant in the American national consciousness. “I had this fascination and curiosity about cultural heritage, and wanted to be connected to a place that my family is from,” recalls Kingdon. In 2017, she shot a short, self-funded documentary about Yiwu - an eastern Chinese city that has become a giant trading hub connecting Chinese factories with buyers around the world. Her first project on the mainland came soon after she graduated from film school. The family had lived in America ever since.įilming in China was partly a way to untangle her relationship with the country, Kingdon says. Her grandparents fled the mainland in 1949 as the Kuomintang’s defeat in the Chinese Civil War became certain, eventually migrating to the U.S. His son, Kingdon’s maternal grandfather, served as a diplomat under Chiang Kai-shek.īut as a child growing up in New York, Kingdon had little connection with her Chinese roots. Her great-grandfather, Zheng Zi, had been a well-known poet in the central Chinese province of Hunan. “We would literally have those conversations.”įor the director, China had long been a source of fascination: a place both familiar and remote.
“We explicitly said at the beginning, ‘This isn’t the kind of film that would go to the Oscars or something,’” says Kingdon.
She’s been more amazed than anyone by the movie’s success, she says. The nomination is a remarkable achievement for Kingdon, a Chinese-American director who had never previously made a feature-length film. Next week, “Ascension” will face off against the likes of Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” for the ultimate prize: the best documentary feature Academy Award. It has already claimed several awards, including best documentary feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, and racked up a 98% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “These questions about what economic progress means and its unintended consequences - a lot of them are magnified in contemporary China.”ĭebuting on the festival circuit in mid-2021, the indie production has been a smash hit with critics. “China is definitely a kind of mirror for America,” Kingdon tells Sixth Tone.
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