Interview. Yung Chang.

"Imagine the Grand Canyon turned into a lake," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "That image is summoned by Yung Chang, the Chinese-Canadian director and occasional narrator of Up the Yangtze, an astonishing documentary of culture clash and the erasure of history amid China's economic miracle."

"With delicacy devoid of preachy grandstanding, Chang documents a landscape mutating not only literally but socially and economically as well, as flooding of countless cities and towns along the Yangtze's banks leads to displacement and, in turn, to an encounter between old and new worlders," writes Nick Schager in Slant.

James Van Maanen talks with the young director as Up the Yangtze opens at the IFC Center in New York.

Updated through 4/26.

Scott Foundas in the Voice: "By journey's end, Yung has found, in the Yangtze, a brilliant natural metaphor for upward mobility in modern China: Whether they hail from the lowlands or the urban centers, everyone here is scrambling to reach higher ground."

"In spite of the way-off-the-beaten-track subject, the film, co-produced by Montreal outfit EyeSteelFilm and the National Film Board of Canada, has become one of the more notable Canuck domestic hits in recent memory," notes Brendan Kelly in Variety. "In the first week of April, the film was the No. 2 domestic performer at the box office and the top non-French homegrown pic."

For Filmmaker, Nick Dawson talks with Yung Chang "about his experiences filming in China, the future of documentaries and the meaning of 'Chinese time.'"

Update, 4/26: "When an enormous lock creaks to life in the opening scene of Up the Yangtze, its hulking slabs of metal shifting like tectonic plates, it's almost as if the rapid transformation of China's powerhouse river is unfolding in geologic time," writes Darrell Hartman in the New York Sun. "It's an appropriate overture, as Yung Chang's lovely, unhurried documentary goes on to extract some timeless truths from China's latest great leap forward."

Posted by dwhudson at April 25, 2008 12:41 AM