Helen Foster Snow: Witness to Revolution (2000)

Produced by Combat Films & Research for the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at Brigham Young University, Helen Foster Snow: Witness to Revolution examines one woman's incredible decade in China during a period of tremendous upheaval. For China, the 1930's were a decade marked by the profound uncertainty and sweeping change. In the wake of the collapse of the ancient dynastic system, the country fell into political chaos as competing warlords terrorized the countryside. Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist party was engaged in a mortal struggle against the Communist forces of Mao Zedong for control of the nation. Meanwhile, Japan invaded Manchuria, and threatened the survival of China. It was in this unstable and dangerous environment that aspiring American author Helen Foster found herself when she arrived in China in 1931. She spent the next decade working as a writer, an activist, and humanitarian. She is one of the few Western eyewitnesses to the gathering Chinese Communist Revolution. Shot on location in China, this carefully documented film considers her important role during this turning point in the birth of modern China.