Q&As with director & co-cinematographer Jessica Kingdon, producer & co-cinematographer Nathan Truesdell and producer Kira Simon-Kennedy, following the 7:30pm show on Friday, October 8 moderated by Farihah Zaman & following the 7:30pm show on Saturday, October 9 moderated by Emmy Award winning filmmaker Hao Wu (76 Days)!

ASCENSION is an impressionistic portrait of China’s industrial supply chain that reveals the country’s growing class divide through staggering observations of labor, consumerism and wealth. The documentary portrays capitalism in China across the levels of its operation, from the crudest mine to the most rarefied forms of leisure. Accordingly, the film is structured in three parts, ascending through the levels of the capitalist structure: workers running factory production, the middle class training for and selling to aspirational consumers, and the elites reveling in a new level of hedonistic enjoyment. In traveling up the rungs of China’s social ladder, we see how each level supports and makes possible the next while recognizing the contemporary "Chinese Dream" remains an elusive fantasy for most.

ASCENSION opened at IFC Center on October 8, 2021 and screened through November 4, 2021.