Aptly infuriating, One Child Nation is a harrowing documentary which manages to balance the personal emotion of the filmmaker with a more expansive, general investigation of the China's infamous One Child Policy. Uninterested in dabbling in often crude political ideological definitions which breed tribalism and subvert morality, this film appropriately places its subjects and a general sense of humanism in pole position, being a relatively implicit critique of authority and collectivization. One Child Nation astutely recognizes how 'the will of the people' is often nothing more than useful rhetoric, a deceit which through propaganda is often repackaged as nationalistic pride, in which the majority crushes the minority. Fetishistic towards the authority principle, this construct of national identity becomes a useful tool for those who wield the monopoly of violence, offering a form of mass manipulation which slowly erodes the notions of free association, personal autonomy, and choice, reinforcing the power and control which the party (or state) have over the individual, hidden beyond the veil of 'the common good'. Examining the corrosive nature of propaganda and national forms of identity, One Child Nation's seamlessly shifts from a relatively personal expose to investigative foray into the totalitarian collectivism of China's policy, a film which at its heart recognizes the necessity of individualistic choice. There is a general anxiety which envelopes this film, one rooted in the fear that such a horrendous act of violence in the form of this policy will be forgotten. Explicitly stating the importance of remembrance, not from the state but from the populace who lived it first hand, One Child Nation is a harrowing reminder of the equalizing nature of time, one in which many heinous acts of violence throughout history have become merely footnotes when juxtaposed against the grand scope of history. The detachment from degradation which time provides, coupled with humankind's persistent arrogance that it has evolved beyond such barbarism serve as a prescient takeaway from One Child Nation, a film which first and foremost pleas for personal autonomy and a general sense of morality. While the film doesn't explicitly speak to the details of the farming crisis - how opting for collectivized farming over high-yield single-plot family farming lead to such food shortages - I believe this was an intentional decision, as the film's primary focus remains on those individuals who suffered, disinterested in engaging in an examination of the messy, muddy waters of the Chinese polity. With the oppression delivered by this policy is expansive, longitudinal and to this day incomplete, One Child Nation opts instead for a humanistic portrait of the grand scope of those effected by such a policy, with the reverberations being a profound reminder of unforeseen externalities attached to any policy conducted by centrally planned/authoritative structures, despite of said intent.
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June 2023
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