POV: Fallen City

The award-winning POV (a cinema term for “point of view”) series is the longest-running showcase on television to feature the work of America's best contemporary-issue independent filmmakers.

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A helicopter view of the old city of Beichuan right after the earthquake.

Courtesy of Niu Xiaoyu

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A building devastated after the earthquake.

Courtesy of Shaoguang Sun

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A half-standing building, four months after the earthquake.

Courtesy of Shaoguang Sun

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The old city of Beichuan flooded, four months after the earthquake.

Courtesy of Niu Xiaoyu

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Hong Shihao with his mother.

Courtesy of Shaoguang Sun

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Brother Peng with his wife.

Courtesy of Shaoguang Sun

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Sister Li and her mother in the temporary residence 80 kilos away from their hometown Beichuan.

Courtesy of Shaoguang Sun

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Li Mingshan, Brother Peng's father-in-law, looking down on the old city from the mountain top.

Courtesy of Shaoguang Sun

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Sun Shaoguang filming the city of Beichuan in the flood season from where Peng lives.

Courtesy of Niu Xiaoyu

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Director Zhao Qi.

Courtesy of Shaoguang Sun

"Fallen City" - In today’s go-go China, an old city completely destroyed by a devastating earthquake can be rebuilt — boasting new and improved civic amenities — in an astoundingly quick two years. But, as “Fallen City” reveals, the journey from the ruined old city of Beichuan to the new Beichuan nearby is long and heartbreaking for the survivors.

Three families struggle with loss — most strikingly the loss of children and grandchildren — and feelings of loneliness, fear and dislocation that no amount of propaganda can disguise. First-time director Qi Zhao offers an intimate look at a country torn between tradition and modernity.

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Fallen City - Trailer

"After an earthquake levels Beichuan

Fallen City: The Flood

"Engineers flood the destroyed city of Beichuan with water from a nearby unstable "quake lake