''Ascension'' ( zh, 登楼叹) is a 2021 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed and produced by

Jessica Kingdon Jessica Kingdon is a Chinese American director and producer. She was nominated for the 2022 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for directing the documentary ''Ascension''. Career Kingdon received her BA from Columbia University in 2009 ...

. It follows the pursuit of the Chinese dream through the social classes, prioritizing productivity and innovation. The film had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

on June 12, 2021, where it won Best Documentary Feature. It was released on October 8, 2021, by MTV Documentary Films.

Synopsis

The film follows the Chinese dream through the social classes, prioritizing productivity and innovation.

Production

Initially,

planned on making a trilogy of short films focusing on the cycle of production, consumption and waste, however, it was difficult to secure funding for a series, and instead decided to develop the trilogy into a feature film. Kingdon wanted to make a film about

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

and how it affects viewers in their own countries, and did not want to specifically single out China. Production on the film took place in 51 locations throughout China. The title of the film originates from a poem written by Jessica Kingdon's great-grandfather.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on June 12, 2021, where it won Best Documentary Feature and the Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director. On September 26, 2021, the film had its European premiere at the

Zurich Film Festival Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) is an annual film festival that has been held in Zürich, Switzerland, since 2005. The festival's main focus is to promote emerging filmmakers from all over the world. In three competition categories only first, second ...

, where it was entered in the competition for best documentary film. In August 2021, it was announced MTV Documentary Films had acquired distribution rights to the film, and set it for an October 8, 2021, release.

Reception

Critical reception

''Ascension'' received positive reviews from film critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

it has a 98% approval rating based on reviews from 44 critics, with an average rating of 7.90/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film holds a rating of 82 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades

References

External links

* * * * {{Metacritic film 2021 films 2021 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about businesspeople Documentary films about consumerism Films about social class Works about capitalism Documentary films about China 2020s American films