Tiananmen: The People Versus the Party (2019)

In the shadowy aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre, thirty years have since passed, yet the haunting specter of the incident continues to lurk in Beijing's history, a grim event the Communist Party of China adamantly denies. As the veil of obscurity gradually lifts, revealing new official documents and emerging eyewitness videos, the seven tumultuous weeks preceding the massacre are meticulously examined. An era of potential change hung in the air, a whisper of democracy on the horizon, as China teetered on the brink of a transformative direction. The intricate web of factors leading to the tragic climax is unwoven, revealing the students' desperate struggle to engage in dialogue with the reformers within the Party, not as revolutionaries aiming for regime change, but as the potential future torchbearers. However, the Party's leaders, their vision clouded by a single chilling term - turmoil - were driven by an overwhelming desire to avoid the chaos of their recent past, the wounds of the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s still raw and festering. "Tiananmen: The People Versus the Party" delivers a poignant exploration of this pivotal moment, a dance between aspiration and fear, between the hope for dialogue and the clinging to power, all unfolding under the watchful eyes of a world that has never forgotten.

Tiananmen: The People Versus the Party is a documentary movie featuring Corey Johnson and directed by Ian MacMillan.

Tiananmen: The People Versus the Party is currently streaming for free (ad-supported) on Kanopy.

It is also possible to buy Tiananmen: The People Versus the Party on Amazon Video and Apple TV.