OSCARS 2022: Ascension (2021)

What a documentary is seems straight-forward enough. It is a non-fiction motion picture, right? A movie devoted to telling real stories and documenting real events. Yet, like any genre, the documentary contains a number of complex subcategories within it. Some documentaries are largely made up of interviews, subjects reflecting on things that have happened to them. Others are acts of video journalism, thrusting the filmmaker right into history as it happens. And then there's the “observational documentary.” These dismiss largely with narration and framing devices, instead focusing on simply pointing the cameras at every day events as they unfold. If interview documentaries seek to educate us about specific topics, and journalistic documentaries seek to inform us about current issues, the goal of observational documentaries is enlighten us on normal life. Among this year's Documentary Oscars nomination, “Ascension” fills the observational niche. 

“Ascension's” subject is life in modern China. It seeks to document people pursuing the Chinese dream. According to the official plot synopsis, the Chinese populace do this through “productivity and innovation.” The productivity is mostly shown through us via extensive footage of people in manufacturing jobs, assembling any number of every day products that will be shipped out to places all over the word. The innovation side of this equation is largely depicted by companies that seek to educate people about various fields, usually by learning to use the internet to their advantage. (Such as a seminar that teaches corporate executives how to create viral videos.)

“Ascension” seeks to understand something essential about the Chinese national identity. We know all about the American Dream, about striving to have a home, a family, and a successful business. In contrast, the Chinese dream seems to be to become cooperative, productive members of society. Factory workers are encouraged to meet quotas and make the most of their time. We see people at some sort of corporate training event, dressed in soldiers fatigues. As various CEOs are introduced, they all clap each time in the exact same pattern, like a machine. In-training butlers are told they will be sacrificing their own lives for their jobs. Even in classes where people are seemingly training to be social media stars, fitting in is encouraged. An announcement, in broken English, at a Chinese mega-mall tells people to be “enlightened citizens.” Americans are always told to be individuals, even when society demands otherwise. China at least seems upfront about wanting to rear conformists. 

In the film's last third, it especially begins to focus on the idea of Chinese values contrasting with American ones. People at a fancy dinner talk about the differences in life in the East versus the West. This follows a conversation about how drinking glasses are designed differently in Europe, to accommodate wider Anglo faces. Execs at a company seminar discuss project earnings in China and how they stand against their American rivals. Yet certain values seem consistent, no matter where on the planet you are. “Ascension” takes us through the societal ladder, beginning with lowly factory workers, going to people in niche training programs, and ending with the rich. As leaders of industry drink and party, we see the products those factory workers made behind them. Someone worked all day to make those products and some other people get to celebrate the gains. The sweepers, maids, and groundskeepers toil around the relaxing rich. In both America and China, it seems the lower echelons of society are always at the service of the higher-ups.

Mostly, I liked “Ascension” for the frequently surreal or memorable sights it captures on camera. One of the factories director Jessica Kingdon's cameras visited manufactures life-sized sex dolls. Seeing petite, Chinese women assembling these naked, exaggerated forms of Western feminine sexuality is definitely an unusual sight. Especially once a foreman tells a worker to re-sculpt a doll's genitalia. A seminar on business etiquette soon degrades into a conversation about the ins-and-outs of hugging. A training camp for bodyguards and cops is especially cruel, a sloppy trainee being forced to do push-ups while, later, the guys are commanded to pummel each other. A visits to a water park produces the film's most impressive visuals, as riders on rafts travel down colorful tube systems.

Jessica Kingdon is half-Chinese herself, the daughter of a Jewish father and a Chinese mother. The film's title is taken from a line in a poem her maternal grandfather wrote. I don't know how much time Kingdon has spent in China, versus here in the U.S. But one suspects that “Ascension” was at least partially born out of her noting the similarities and differences between the two cultures that form her joint heritage. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it. The idea for the film arose out of Kingdon wanting to explore the cycle of production, consumption, and waste. She says the movie is about capitalism. However you interpret it, “Ascension” is a pretty fascinating and interesting watch. [7/10]