Doors open at 6:30 PM, screening will start at 7 PM sharp.

If you missed the screening of this incredible documentary in Chicago last November, here’s your chance to watch and discuss it with director Jiang Nengjie, who has flown in from China. 

Filmed over a period of almost ten years (2010-2018), “Miners, Groom, Pneumoconiosis” delves into the semi-legal mining industry in the southern Chinese province Hunan from the perspective of local workers and their families. In this region, the lackluster economy drove people to work in the mines despite government restrictions and the constant news of mining disasters. Over time, many miners develop pneumoconiosis, or “dust lung disease” as it was locally known. 

Jiang Nengjie is an independent filmmaker, documentary worker, and the founder of “Cotton Sand” Video Studio and “Cotton Sand” Village Library. He won a Phoenix Television Top Ten Public Welfare Figures Award and was a German Blue Study House Foundation 2024 Visiting Scholar. His works focus on topics such as left-behind children, war veterans, pneumoconiosis, intellectual disabilities, and sexual minorities. His signature works include "The Children of Village School," "Grade Nine," "Shorty," "Miners, the Horsekeeper, and Pneumoconiosis," "Anti-Japanese War Veteran," "We Will Have Everything," "General’s Attendant Guard," "Rainbow Cruise."and "Fen."  His works have been shortlisted at the Shanghai International Film Festival, Warsaw International Film Festival, Beijing International Film Festival, Phoenix Documentary Awards, and other domestic and international film festivals. Both Jiang and his film works have received exclusive interviews and coverage from renowned media outlets such as The Economist (UK) and Le Monde (France).