Disbarment
He Yang
Release year: 2010
Run time: 29 mins
Film type: Documentary
Synopsis
Because of handling cases involving forced eviction, religion and freedom of expression, Beijing Bureau of Justice prepared to revoke the lawyers' licenses of human rights lawyers Tang Jitian and Liu Wei. On April 22, 2010, the hearing for the revocation of their licenses was held at the office of the Beijing Bureau of Justice. This marked the beginning of a new round of suppression of human rights lawyers. In recent years, the situation regarding human rights lawyers have worsened. They have been sentenced, sent to Re-education through Labor camps, harassed, kidnapped, followed and beaten, and these malignant events are occurring frequently. As voices of the vulnerable, their channels for fighting for justice have been blocked one after the other.
Director biography
Born in 1970
From 2010 to 2011, he made a number of documentaries on human rights and social movements. They are: "Disbarment ", a film documenting the suppression of Chinese human rights lawyers by the government and the illegal revocation of their lawyers' licenses, "Emergency Shelter", a film documenting the torture and displacement of legal rights defender Ni Yulan by the Chinese government, "Herzog’s Days", a film reflecting the social movement and street protests triggered by the "Fujian Three Netizens Case", "Blood Years", a film documenting the arrest of AIDS rights activist Tian Xi, and "Fanjun City", a film documenting the survival of landless peasants.
Among them, "Herzog’s Days" won the Citizen Award at the 1st Sunside of the Doc.
He has been blacklisted since he made a human rights documentary in 2010 and restricted from leaving the country, followed and placed under house arrest for a long time, beaten, raided, arrested and illegally detained by the police several times.
He emigrated to the United States in 2015.
He completed the documentary "No Retreat" in 2017, reflecting on human rights lawyers in China.