Icarus Films To Release Spark/The Observer Double-Feature On DVD On June 30

Icarus Films will be teaming up with the dGenerate Films Collection for the double-feature release on DVD this coming June 30 of documentary filmmaker Hu Jie’s Spark, which is joined by director Rita Andreetti’s biographical documentary about Hu Jie, The Observer.

With the potential assault on Hong Kong and the ending of the Sino-British Joint Declaration by the Chinese Communist Party, the release of Hu Jie’s Spark could not be better timed by Icarus Films.

His film details the history of the students who dared publish a journal, “Spark,” that covered the deceit, out right lies and violence of Mao’s Great Leap Forward.  It didn’t start out as they intended, just a small publication that spoke of what, to them, seemed to be a local (province-level) bureaucracy that was inept and actually doing a disservice to Mao’s teachings.   It was only when the publishers of “Spark” journeyed to other areas of China that they discovered the true intent of the Great Leap Forward — the consolidation of power by any means necessary.

For their trouble, two of the original student-members of “Spark” were purged (that is a nicety for being murdered).

 

The companion piece, The Observer, is documentary filmmaker Rita Andreetti’s look at the life Hu Jie, including his trilogy of films about Mao’s China that concluded with Spark in 2013 and included Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul in 2004 and the 2007 release of Though I Am Gone.

Both Spark and The Observer on DVD from Icarus Films on June 30 are presented in Mandarin with English subtitles.   The Observer includes bonus scenes, extra interview footage and exclusive scenes filmed by Hu Jie.