dGenerate Films is a non-theatrical distributor of award-winning independent films from China. Their aim is to bring more images of contemporary life in mainland China to U.S. audiences. The company was launched in 2008 by American independent film veterans, including producer Karin Chien. dGenerate Films has the international rights to nearly forty independent Chinese films, and they distribute them abroad mostly to educational institutions and festivals, though they also are available to a general audience. Many of them are smuggled illegally out of China, where the uncensored films are considered to be counter-government.
Examples of releases include:
1408, a documentary on the effects of the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake on the lives of rural people near the epicenterBetelnut, a narrative following the love, work, and aimless pursuits of 21st century teenagers in a sleepy riverside city in rural ChinaDisorder, a documentary featuring chaotic, humorous and provocative found video images of life in China's booming citiesDong, a documentary following artist Liu Xiaodong as he paints workers demolishing an ancient town in advance of the new Three Gorges DamFujian Blue, a narrative film on the lives of young men, aspiring small-time hoods, in a fast-paced corner of coastal ChinaGhost Town, a documentary tracing the lives of a Christian community in decline in a remote corner of southwestern ChinaIn Search of Lin Zhao's Soul, a documentary on the legacy of Lin Zhao, a young woman rebel who died in the 1960s Cultural RevolutionLittle Moth, a narrative film about a young girl who is forced by her adoptive parents to beg for money on the streetsKaramay, a documentary of personal testimonies on a mysterious 1994 fire that resulted in the death of Uighur people in Xinjiang ProvinceMeishi Street, a documentary following the demolishing of an ordinary neighborhood in Beijing in preparation for the 2008 OlympicsThe Other Half, a narrative in which a young woman tries to escape a destructive lover and the toxic natural environment of her cityOxhide, a narrative in which filmmaker Liu Jiayin presents an intimate, funny, fictionalized portrait of her working class Beijing familyQueer China Comrade China, a documentary about the history of gay rights and the place of homosexuality in modern Chinese cultureSan Yuan Li, a documentary tracing a traditional village which has been surrounded by the postmodern megalopolis of GuangzhouStruggle, a documentary focused on workers who suffered severe injuries in a high tech factory manufacturing products for western exportUsing, a documentary showing the troubled relations between a drug addict, his girlfriend, and the filmmaker eager to expose their livesWhen the Bough Breaks, a documentary on a Beijing family suffering hard times, whose children take responsibility to support each other