Bringing King to China

An engrossing documentary that underscores how even the best intentions can go awry, Bringing King to China centers on an American teacher named Caitrin McKiernan living in Beijing, China, who receives word that her father, Kevin McKiernan—a TV journalist—has been killed while covering the Iraq War. After Kevin turns up alive, Caitrin is inspired to try to make the world a better place—talking to her Chinese students about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. Noting that King can help serve as a kind of bridge between America and China (where he is much admired as a foe of so-called imperialism), Caitrin decides to produce a play about King with Beijing's most prestigious theatre company, a project that faces great difficulty on many levels, from financing to logistics to dialogues with the show's director and cast about the meaning of King's legacy and how it relates to Chinese political culture. Things go swimmingly for a while, but eventually it becomes obvious that the director's take on the play and on King himself is quite different from Caitrin's. Capturing all of this on film is dad Kevin (who is the film's director, although some of the cinematography here was done by the legendary Haskell Wexler), whom Caitrin feels is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following his Iraq experience. With its various levels of psychodrama, Bringing King to China winds up being a fascinating and thought-provoking film. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)