“Like all the best documentaries, Up the Yangtze shows us something we've never seen before, with insight and meaning. Up the Yangtze goes down in movie history as a work of lasting value” - Andrew L. Urban - Urban Cinefile

“floats across the screen, leaving indelible metaphoric imagery of China's rapidly changing way of life” - John A. Nesbit - Old School Reviews

Our documentary film for the year is a visually beautiful, melancholy story centring on two families whose lives are about to be radically changed by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.  A cruise up the river with western tourists is an apt vehicle for showing the changes occurring in people’s lives.  This is not a film that focusses on the environmental impact (that is a whole other story), this film explores the changes in Chinese society and ways of life which have survived for thousands of years.

There is little enjoyment in the difference this dam will make to these people’s lives, but there is much to enjoy in this beautiful, heart-rending exploration of the changes occurring in China today.

Best Documentary - San Francisco International Film Festival

Best Canadian Documentary - Vancouver International Film Festival