Awarded best documentary at the Hamilton Film Festival this year, Davids and Goliath may have just divulged the biggest secret in China today, or even the most grievous crime in human history, — forced organ harvesting from living prisoners of conscience.
Shocking, sad, horrifying, and unbelievable, that’s how the film is, but in fact, no words can describe how aghast I was when I first heard the words “live organ harvesting.”
Beginning with interviews of several patients who received organ transplants in Mainland China, the movie focuses on an independent investigation of the transplant industry there. Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas and former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour are the “Davids” in Davids and Goliath. Both Davids were separately nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
They first published detailed reports and evidence of organ harvesting in their book “Bloody Harvest” in 2009.
“It is a fantastic documentary, really incredibly sad and horrifying. It left a good impression on all of us who watched it. So it was easy to select that one as the best documentary. It’s a movie like this that needs to get out to the public, and more people to become aware of it that it’s happening and how it’s happening. That kind of thing needs to be stopped.” said Nathan Fleet, the administrative director of the Hamilton Film Festival.
The film’s director, Leon Lee, said, “I hope the audience can watch it calmly, from the beginning to the end. Think over the evidence presented in the film and use your own judgment.”
Davids and Goliath is also a finalist in the Viewster Online Film Festival, which is the biggest online movie festival worldwide, and is free to watch until Nov. 27.
