Clearing the Square

1996
Cathy Peters
Clearing the Square is a documentary in memory of the victims of the repression of the democracy movement in Tienanmen Square. An estimated two and a half thousand unarmed civilians were killed there in June 1989; others died later or were held in Chinese prisons because of the belief they could effect democratic political change of a kind occurring elsewhere. Central to the creation of this work is a clandestine tape recording of testimony by student leader Chi Ling. The production uses a rich variety of audio and written documentary materials, including accounts by Amnesty International, original testimony by a Chinese student in the square who is now living in Australia and by Christine Liao, an Australian who was in Beijing at the time. Clearing the Square is an edited version of the original 42:00 work produced by the ABC, Australia's "The Listening Room."