Oscar-Nominated Film Censored in China

“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” is a 2010 Oscar nominee for best documentary short.

According to the U.K.-based Telegraph, the film has been blocked from airing in China and the words ‚unnatural disaster‘ are being censored on the Chinese Internet.

The newspaper also says when the 2010 Oscar nominees were first announced Chinese media either excluded the documentary from their report, or completely left out the best documentary short category.

The 39-minute film, by Matthew O’Neil and Jon Alpert, tells the story of parents whose children died in the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

The Sichuan earthquake is a highly sensitive issue in China, as many parents lost their only child.

According to official state statistics, more than 70,000 people were killed in the quake. At least 5,000 of them were children who died when their school buildings collapsed.

The film shows the families’ protests and failure to get answers from local officials.

Some speculate Chinese state-run TV probably won’t show the Oscar ceremony on March 7th in case the film wins the award.

NTDTV