MOVIE SPOTLIGHT - "MULBERRY CHILD"

MULBERRY CHILD will premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center’s Documentary Series –“Stranger Than Fiction” on January 21st, 2012 at 8PM, followed by screenings on January 24th at 8PM and January 26th at 8PM

MULBERRY CHILD is a powerful, deeply moving story of author Jian Ping’s (Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China) coming of age as the daughter of a senior government official and her family's struggle to survive China's Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976.

After living in America for 20 years, Jian Ping finds the courage to write the story of her childhood in Communist China. Her beloved father, a high ranking government official was arrested and falsely accused of treason, her mother was persecuted daily and her family was scorned and banished to live in a primitive mud hut, with no heat or running water in a cold remote area N.E. of China. The traumatic experiences of The Revolution had a lifelong impact on Jian making it difficult for her to express her feelings.

There is a disconnect between Jian and her free spirited American raised daughter, Lisa. Jian wants Lisa to read her story in order to understand her own heritage, but for years, Lisa has no interest in reading the manuscript.

Growing up as an all American girl with freedom and comfort, Lisa does not identify with her Chinese roots. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics Jian’s father falls gravely ill. Jian and Lisa travel to China to see him for the last time. After reconnecting with her Chinese family, Lisa decides to read her mother's book upon returning back to the states. Will this journey into the past forge a better understanding between mother and daughter?

MULBERRY CHILD teaches us the human capacity for courage and endurance, and how the events of the past can haunt our future.

Directed by award winning filmmaker Susan Morgan Cooper (An Unlikely Weapon: The Eddie Adams Story), and narrated by Golden Globe and Emmy nominated actress Jacqueline Bisset - MULBERRY CHILD - traces Jian Ping's traumatic childhood during The Cultural Revolution in China [1966-1976] and examines the repercussions on Jian's American raised daughter living today in Chicago.“My mother wanted to show me China. China showed me my mother.”

For more info log onto: www.mulberrychildmovie.com