Before the Flood 
Dir: Li Yifan & Yan Yu
147 mins. 2004
Thursday 8th February 2007 6.00 pm at Odeon Panton St
Saturday 10th March 2007 2 pm at Museum in Docklands
A remarkable independent documentary on the environmental impact of China's Three Gorges Dam project. It has won prizes at both the Berlin International Film Festival and also the prestigious Cinema du Reel documentary festival in France.
Yan Yu and Li Yifan’s remarkable independent documentary on the environmental impact of China’s Three Gorges Dam project has won prizes at both the Berlin International Film Festival and also the prestigious Cinema du Reel documentary festival in France. The dam project has been the subject of the project ever since it was first planned. One-and-a-half miles wide, 600 feet high and 400 miles long, the dam will be able to create as much energy as 18 nuclear power plants. But by its projected completion in 2009, it will also result in the partial or complete inundation of two cities, 11 counties, 140 towns, 326 townships, and 1351 villages. About 23,800 hectares and anywhere from 1.1 to 1.9 million people will have been resettled. Many of these places that are about to disappear are natural monuments and historical sites, like Fengjie, the "town of poetry", home to China's most famous poet Li Bai. Li and Yan quietly observe the struggle of local officials to persuade residents to leave their homes and relocate as the floodwaters rise, and the residents resistance and desperation in the face of what is ultimately a hopeless situation for them. The result is an intensely compelling depiction of the human and environmental price to be paid for “environmentally friendly” hydroelectric energy.
Westminster: Odeon Panton Street
Tickets : £6 .00
Booking Number is 0871 22 44 007
Website - www.odeon.co.uk
Tower Hamlets: Museum in Docklands
1 Warehouse, West India Quay, E14
Hertsmere Road, London
Tickets: £5 Bookings: 0870 444 3855
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