In the Name of Confucius Shortlisted at the 70th Yorkton Film Festival

In the Name of Confucius has been nominated by Canada’s prestigious Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) for an award in the Emerging Filmmaker category in recognition of director Doris Liu‘s filmmaking craft. Now in its 70^th year, the Yorkton Film Festival is the longest running film contest in North America and a symbol of the film craft history of Canada. The YFF’s Golden Sheaf Award honours Canada’s best short films/videos under 60 minutes.

In the Name of Confucius is Doris’ directorial debut. Doris is also the writer and producer of this film. The 52 min documentary explores the growing global controversies surrounding China’s multi-billion dollar Confucius Institute (CI), a Beijing-funded Chinese language and culture program established in over 1,500 universities and schools worldwide.

From 2013 to 2016, Doris visited and spoke to educational institutions across Canada, trying to find out reasons they embrace or reject the Confucius Institutes. Doris and her team was the only film production group that followed the 2014 public outcry against CIs and the heated debates about having CIs at Canada’s largest school board, the Toronto District School Board.

The film also tells an exclusive story, through reenactments, of a former CI teacher Sonia Zhao, who was the inspiration of Doris’ filmmaking journey. “Being nominated by the Yorkton Film Festival is a great honour.” said Doris. “It encourages me to make more good films in future.”

The 70th Yorkton Film Festival will be held in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada between May 25 to 28, 2017. The Golden Sheaf Award winners will be announced on May 27 at the festival. To view this year’s Golden Sheaf Award nominees, please click here.