VOD Reviews: Jason Loftus and Eric Pedicelli’s ASK NO QUESTIONS looks suspected faked immolation suicides by the Chinese government by balancing a personal story with “true crime” deconstruction
At once both extremely personal and universal, this documentary about a potentially falsified self-immolation in 2001 in Tiananmen Square reflects all the best qualities of true crime and documentary. Ask No Questions feels like an intensely personal story as it focuses on directors Jason Loftus and Eric Pedicelli’s questioning of a self-immolation by members of the group Falun Gong. Despite his very personal investment (himself a practicing member of the Buddhist branch of religion) it maintains a slight air of objectivity as it examines this event to understand the Chinese propaganda and brainwashing state apparatus. Ask No Questions follows the personal account of a journalist held in brainwashing detention centers in China while Loftus and Pedicelli investigate the true nature of a self-immolation all culminating in a paranoid sensation that the Chinese government orchestrated the entire event.
ASK NO QUESTIONS
The doc starts out simply: the only footage from American cameras ever to record the event (at a distance) and the arrest of the journalist who shot it calls to mind several other documentaries about Chinese detainment and propaganda efforts. The notion that China censors it’s news is certainly not new to the global population nor to the documentary space at large. This documentary, however, does a fantastic job of microscoping in on one event partially forgotten by the global media, to examine the apparatus in place. Thankfully the documentary does not lack in sources and the broad range of perspectives brought in to cover the theories explained herein help balance some of the passive subjectivity injected overall.
Loftus and Pedicelli begin by explaining Loftus’ own relationship with Falun Gong: a spiritual movement that surface in the late 90’s combining meditation with a moral philosophy centered on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance (read: tolerance.) He even goes so far as to show footage of his own demonstration in Tiananmen square denouncing the villainous portrayal of the group in Chinese media. While this footage demonstrates Loftus’ personal relationship to the subject, it also helps explain the origins of this doc before quickly falling away. The story being told encompasses much more than his personal questions.
Chen Ruichang (ASK NO QUESTIONS)
Really, the central narrative follows Chen Ruichang, a Falun Gong follower, who was promptly detained by Chinese officials. He details spending two years in a rehabilitation center being brainwashed with literal Clockwork Orange-esque methods. He refused to denounce his religion. Other news officials met with him to convince him the self-immolation happened and was not staged by the government to vilify a growing religious movement. His detailed accounts of torture and brainwashing appear horrific and the clever reenactments add to the film without making it feel hokey or daytime television-esque.
What works so well is the balanced messaging of the film overall. As Chen and Loftus tell their story the documentary steps back to examine the reason the Chinese state would stage such a volatile event. It points to China’s increasing record of instances of human rights abuse as well as their renewed interest in broad global popularity. The Chinese government’s bid for the Olympics in 2000 was snuffed by that same record but by 2001 the International Olympic Committee agreed Falun Gong practitioners were more a danger to themselves than the government. This helped secure the bid for the 2008 Olympics and arguably demonstrates the misinformation campaigns motives.
Pedicelli and Loftus takes pains to test various theories. Were the protesters actors in fireproof suits? Could the hospital interviews have been staged? He interviews experts in fire stunts and fire burns to analyze the footage and either affirm or negate his theories. Technically he’s grasping at straws as the footage is so slim and easily controlled by the Chinese state propaganda, but he walks the audience through his reasoning clearly demonstrating the flaws in the footage. CNN journalists confirm foul play, but not one person can find the exact smoking gun. This investigative process really encourages audiences to invest in the story at large.
ASK NO QUESTIONS
Admittedly the whole thing feels more like a True Crime podcast on film than a by-the-books documentary, a sort of cinematic Serial. Still the film engages larger issues by inspecting more specific events and by that method grabs viewers attention in ways that other documentaries just quite couldn’t. It isn’t heavy on horrifying imagery, but plays much more in the world of investigations. The kinetic font, double exposed footage, and contrasting text lean into recent documentary aesthetics implying some modernity even as the reenactments contain a VCR aesthetic perfectly situating the events in it’s 90’s era. It never fails to remind us how recent this history is and how far-reaching it can be. I found myself extremely engrossed in Ask No Questions and despite it’s formal lack of perfect objectivity I would recommend the film, which is available on multiple VOD platforms on June 30.
