Zhao Liang is one of China’s most celebrated documentary artists and a key figure within the independent documentary movement that developed in the country at the turn of the century. His work spans cinema, video art and installation and has been presented at festivals and exhibitions worldwide. This programme brings together three essential early works: Paper Airplane (2001), Crime and Punishment (2006) and Petition (2009). Produced concurrently over the course of a decade, these raw, uncompromising films depict life on the outer margins of Chinese society, detailing, with unflinching honesty, the harsh realities of daily life for the country’s most disenfranchised and persecuted people.

Read our catalogue essay on the Zhao Liang trilogy, written by Carol-Mei Barker.