By Will Espero

Yifei Wang is a former Chinese journalist whose sister was tortured and killed by the Chinese government for her strong faith and support of Falun Gong. Kay Rubacek directed this feature documentary from the United States to tell the story of Yifei’s family and its battle to see the deceased body of Kirfey, Yifei’s sister. Interviews with family members and former members of the Chinese Communist Party detail many incidents and experiences from multiple people involved or knowledgeable about Kirfey’s case and imprisonment.

A story of fear, intimidation, torture, and death is exposed as the brutality and abusive behavior of a Chinese regime is told. Family members describe the threat that Falun Gong is to the Chinese regime as its popularity grew throughout China and its followers were in the millions. Seeing a challenge to the current system of government, Chinese leaders set out to end Falun Gong and silence the supporters of the Buddhist-based spiritual practice.

Finding Courage is the saga of the survivors of Chinese repression and persecution who ultimately moved to the United States to live in freedom and share with the world of their life in China.

Kay Rubacek

Formally trained in the visual arts, Kay Rubacek was a producer/writer in the gaming industry and international media for 15 years before transitioning into filmmaking. She is now a producer, director, and writer for Swoop Films. Kay has been an advocate for and a writer on China-related issues since 2001 when she was arrested for protesting on Tiananmen Square in Beijing and experienced the inside of a Chinese prison.

Finding Courage began as a short documentary profiling Yifei Wang, a former Chinese journalist, who I’d met during the production of our last documentary, Hard To Believe. In a follow-up interview with Yifei, I was blown away by how her personal experience connected to so many aspects of the Chinese regime’s persecution of the popular meditation practice, Falun Gong. I felt that telling her story could present the complexities of this highly politicized issue in a way that is relatable to a broader audience, beyond people who are already interested in Chinese politics or human rights.

As we began documenting Yifei’s journey, her brother, Leo, who had been in prison serving 13 years for printing Falun Gong flyers, was released and escaped to America with his wife. Traumatized, but in awe of American freedom, Leo and his wife began their journey of healing in front of the camera.

Soon we heard Yifei’s family in China were going to visit the labor camp where Yifei’s sister had been murdered because she refused to give up her faith in Falun Gong. The family agreed to use secret cameras to film the process. After they successfully relayed the footage out of China to us, I felt indebted to the family to tell their story in the form of a feature documentary.

We were able to track down survivors in the same labor camp as Yifei’s sister who has witnessed her persecution. We also tracked down a former labor camp director who defected from China because he refused to be an accomplice to the abuse of Falun Gong practitioners in his labor camp. His candid testimony, along with other defectors and witnesses, were surprisingly insightful for me, despite my own years of research into Chinese politics and society.

The access we gained to this story, due to the bravery of this family of survivors, astounds me to this day. It was their resilience that provided me the courage, as a first-time director, to traverse the difficult journey across cultural, linguistic, and political divides to interweave all the elements of this story into a single film about one family’s search for freedom and justice.

Kay Rubacek

Finding Courage is an Official Selection at the 2023 edition of the Global Nonviolent Film Festival, and it can be watched from September 28 to October 8 on GlobalCinema.online where the Festival is being broadcast. D!