Filmmakers Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon are up for the best short documentary Oscar this year with The Warriors of Qiugang — which you can watch in its entirety on Yale Environment 360. (Do it — the two won the Oscar in this category in 2006, so methinks they’re a shoe-in, and plus you’ll sound smart during the obscure categories.) The 39-minute film is an equally devastating and inspiring look at the awful impact of pesticide and dye factories on a Chinese village. Devastating because factory pollution and waste killed farmland, washed into homes during rainstorms, and gave residents cancer. Inspiring because locals joined with NGO Green Anhui to protest the factories, and — despite widespread illiteracy and lack of deep corporate pockets — eventually won. Very David and Goliath stuff. It’s got trickery, people overcoming adversity, and cute swans. I’ll be cheering for this one come February 27.
