Sadly, the persecution of Falun Gong has continued since 1999. From abduction, imprisonment, rape, and torture to forced organ harvesting, the atrocities committed by the Chinese communist regime against Falun Gong have never stopped.

For more information, visit https://faluninfo.net/key-topics/

In light of the worldwide boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, many have taken a stand against the Chinese communist regime’s abysmal human rights record in Xinjiang. But very few have spoken out about the persecution of Falun Gong, largely due to the CCP’s pressure and widespread propaganda.

In a way, the world’s silence has allowed the regime to crack down on more groups, such as Uyghurs, underground Christians, disgruntled workers, and many more. The regime applies the methods and experiences it accumulated in persecuting Falun Gong on these groups. Unsilenced speaks for all those whose voice cannot be heard in China.

Asian cultures have a long history of practicing exercises such as Tai chi and Qigong for health and spiritual achievement. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a type of traditional Chinese spiritual discipline that consists of meditation, four gentle standing exercises, and following the core values of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. It has no membership and is offered free of charge. It is now practiced in over 80 countries, with teachings translated into 40 languages.

For more information, visit https://faluninfo.net/what-is-falun-gong-falun-dafa

Falun Gong gained popularity quickly in the early 90s when it was first introduced to the public. By 1998, upwards of 70 million people were practicing it in China. This surpassed the membership of the Communist Party at the time, a fact that drew the ire of then-Party leader Jiang Zemin. Although Falun Gong has no political agenda, Jiang felt it posed an ideological threat to the Party’s control and wanted to make a show of power using an easy target. In 1999, he ordered a newly-formed security agency, the 610 Office, to eradicate Falun Gong. His instructions were: “Ruin their reputations, bankrupt them financially, destroy them physically.”

Since 1999, human rights groups have estimated tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been sent to detention, and many have been killed by forced organ harvesting or other cruel means.

For more information, visit https://faluninfo.net/why-persecution/

While our story is set in China, we had no access to locations or talent in China due to the sensitivity of the subject matter. This forced us to shoot the film in Taiwan. But even outside China, the propaganda campaign against Falun Gong is far-reaching and fear of retaliation from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is high.

Many crew members in Taiwan brave enough to participate ended up either using aliases or opted to remain anonymous, fearing the risk of repercussions from the CCP if they were tied to the film.

Additionally, many locations refused our requests to film, citing similar concerns. Several key locations agreed initially, but canceled our booking as we were decorating the sets and the film’s subject matter became clear.

The majority of the Chinese-speaking cast we auditioned were very concerned that participating in Unsilenced would hinder their career development in China. Several key cast members backed out even after signing the agreement. This deeply-felt fear of future consequences—for merely being associated with the film-—meant that we constantly had to scramble to find new locations and talent while shooting. For about two months during production, key creatives had only one day off as we did everything we could to keep the production moving forward.