Downloads: Press Release
Film Goes Deep Inside a Military-style Beijing Treatment Facility, Where Young Patients Are Forced to Face Their Virtual Demons. Is This the Wave of the Future?
Web Junkie offers a troubling glimpse into anxieties that are hardly China’s alone.” — A.O. Scott, The New York Times
When the words “China” and “Internet” appear in the same sentence, the word “censorship” is usually close by. But in at least one aspect of the Internet revolution, China is establishing a precedent the rest of the world could soon follow.
China is the first country in the world to classify Internet addiction as a clinical disorder, the cure for which is the subject of Web Junkie, an intimate and sometimes jarring documentary having its national broadcast premiere on PBS’s POV (Point of View) on Monday, July 13, 2015 at 10 p.m. (check local listings). Now in its 28th season, POV is American television’s longest-running independent documentary series and the recipient of a 2013 MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.
The film follows the treatment of Chinese teenagers whose preference for the virtual world over the real one is summed up in one jarring statement: “Reality is too fake.” Bringing them back to earth is often a very bumpy ride.
Award-winning Israeli filmmakers Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia were given incredibly open access to Daxing Boot Camp, a three-month military style anti-addiction program in Beijing designed for patients 13 to 18 years old. Web Junkie portrays the rehabilitation process and the evolving diagnosis behind it.
The fast-paced film starts in a video cafe, where teenagers blissfully play Internet games and smoke cigarettes. Cut to the inside of the no-frills treatment facility, where guards rouse the dreary-eyed visitors from cell-like rooms for morning exercises.
Suddenly, it is clear these kids have followed their computer keystrokes to a dark and different place. Some, in fact, do not know exactly how they got there. One patient–or inmate–says he was told he was going on a family ski trip to Russia. He went to sleep at home and when he awoke he was at a “Chinese teenager mental growth” facility, one of more than 400 treatment centers created by the government.
There are many unhappy campers. “I’m wasting my time here,” one patient protests. “I don’t need any treatment.” Others grimace as they are forced to the floor and told to hold themselves in an uncomfortable position for 30 minutes. A teen becomes violent. “Call the drillmaster!” a staffer shouts. Another day in the life of an Internet addict in Daxing Boot Camp, with many remaining.
There is nothing virtual about the treatment center, which resembles a Marine Corps boot camp far more than a typical Western clinic. Patients are under constant surveillance–even as they sleep. Rigorous exercise programs are augmented by group therapy, brain scans and classroom instruction. In one class, an instructor explains that Internet addiction blocks the normal development of the social part of the brain. This does not necessarily convince the patients, one of whom calls the classes an attempt at “brainwashing.”
The filmmakers interview Tao Ran, the professor who established the world’s first Internet addiction clinic and who calls Internet addiction China’s most significant public health hazard, claiming, “It has surpassed any other problem.” Web junkies, he explains, are not using the Internet for research and homework. They are instead addicted to games. “They are the same as heroin addicts,” he insists.
Parents are often at their wits’ end and many must borrow money to pay for the program. They tell, sometimes through tears, of losing their children to the malady. “He changed into a different person,” one desperate mother says. Most young patients have withdrawn from family life. Some stop bathing. Others are so reluctant to take breaks from playing video games with their online partners that they wear diapers to avoid bathroom trips. As is often the case with other addictions, family disruption and estrangement are common. One anguished father admits he had become too hard on his Internet-obsessed child.
“It is an abyss swallowing my son,” says another mother, though the film illustrates that young people also use the Internet as a tool of social interaction, including romance. Yet while these connections may span the globe, they usually take place in an environment of solitude. “We are increasingly connected to each other but oddly more alone,” the filmmakers say. In one riveting scene, a young man describes how easy it is to profess love simply by repeatedly striking a programmed key. This is passion without a pulse, a quantum leap in the practice of long-distance love.
Web Junkie is a frank portrayal of China’s unique treatment program that also raises questions, especially for Western viewers. “Will these techniques be successful?” Shlam and Medalia ask. “Is this militaristic treatment effective or advisable? Is it possible to ‘cure’ these young kids? And on the topic of human rights, is it enough that the government requires only the parents’ agreement in order to hold these children against their will?”
The “cure” question is left wide open. One patient says Internet addiction “is not a real disease. It’s a social phenomenon.” But another insists, “My life is more real than before” since going through the program, which ends with sessions of family reconciliation. At one session, a patient is required to tell his father he loves him 30 times.
One departing patient, however, delivers a line echoed during exits from treatment centers everywhere, indicating that some positive behavior modification has taken place: “Dude, I don’t want to come here ever again.” As more countries focus on Internet addiction, the Chinese treatment may become the template for the wider world’s response. The young patients of Web Junkie may be riding the wave of the future.
About the filmmakers:
Shosh Shlam, Director/Producer
Award-winning filmmaker Shosh Shlam directed Good Garbage (2008), named best documentary at the Shanghai International Film Festival and winner of the best cinematography award at the Israeli Documentary Awards. Her previous films include Be Fruitful and Multiply (2005), which represented Israel on International Women’s Day in Asia, and Last Journey Into Silence (2003), winner of the best documentary award at the Lublin Film Festival, winner of the Columbine Award at the Moondance International Film Festival and a best documentary honorable mention at the Haifa International Film Festival. Shlam holds a master’s degree in comparative literature from Bar-Ilan University. She is also a graduate of the theater department at Tel Aviv University and studied at New York’s School of Visual Arts.
Hilla Medalia, Director/Producer
Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Hilla Medalia has received three Emmy® nominations. Her projects have garnered critical acclaim and screened internationally in theaters and on television, including HBO, MTV, BBC and ARTE. Among her titles are To Die in Jerusalem (2007, HBO); After the Storm (2009, MTV); Numbered (2012, ARTE); Dancing in Jaffa (2013; Tribeca, IFC Sundance selects); Web Junkie (2013, Sundance Film Festival); and The Go Go Boys (2014, Cannes Film Festival). Her latest film, Censored Voices (2015), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and Berlinale and is expected to be released theatrically in the fall. She holds a master of arts degree from Southern Illinois University.
Credits:
Directors: Shosh Shlam, Hilla Medalia
Producers: Shosh Shlam, Hilla Medalia, Neta Zwebner-Zaibert
Executive Producers: Jeremy Chilnick, Morgan Spurlock, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Eve Ensler
Editor: Enat Sidi
Director of Photography: Sun Shaoguang
Composer: Ran Bagno
Running Time: 56:46
POV Series Credits:
Executive Producers: Chris White, Simon Kilmurry
Associate Producer: Nicole Tsien
Coordinating Producer: Nikki Heyman
About ITVS
Independent Television Service funds, presents and promotes award-winning documentaries and dramas on public television, innovative new media projects on the Web, and the Emmy® Award-winning weekly series Independent Lens on PBS. Mandated by Congress in 1988 and funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ITVS has brought more than 1,000 independently produced programs to date to American audiences. For more information, visit itvs.org.
About POV
Produced by American Documentary, Inc., POV is public television’s premier showcase for nonfiction films. The series airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on PBS from June to September, with primetime specials during the year. Since 1988, POV has been the home for the world’s boldest contemporary filmmakers, celebrating intriguing personal stories that spark conversation and inspire action. Always an innovator, POV discovers fresh new voices and creates interactive experiences that shine a light on social issues and elevate the art of storytelling. With our documentary broadcasts, original online programming and dynamic community engagement campaigns, we are committed to supporting films that capture the imagination and present diverse perspectives.
POV films have won 32 Emmy® Awards, 18 George Foster Peabody Awards, 12 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards®, the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award and the Prix Italia. The POV series has been honored with a Special News & Documentary Emmy Award for Excellence in Television Documentary Filmmaking, two IDA Awards for Best Continuing Series and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Award for Corporate Commitment to Diversity. More information is available at www.pbs.org/pov.
POV Community Engagement and Education (www.pbs.org/pov/engage)
POV’s Community Engagement and Education team works with educators, community organizations and PBS stations to present more than 650 free screenings every year. In addition, we distribute free discussion guides and standards-aligned lesson plans for each of our films. With our community partners, we inspire dialogue around the most important social issues of our time.
POV Digital (www.pbs.org/pov/)
Since 1994, POV Digital has driven new storytelling initiatives and interactive production for POV. The department created PBS’s first program website and its first web-based documentary (POV’s Borders) and has won major awards, including a Webby Award (and six nominations) and an Online News Association Award. POV Digital continues to explore the future of independent nonfiction media through its digital productions and the POV Hackathon lab, where media makers and technologists collaborate to reinvent storytelling forms. @povdocs on Twitter.
American Documentary, Inc. (www.amdoc.org/)
American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia company dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.
Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding comes from Nancy Blachman and David desJardins, Bertha Foundation, The Fledgling Fund, Marguerite Casey Foundation, Ettinger Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.
Contacts:
POV Communications: 212-989-7425. Alternate contact: 206-790-8697.
Cathy Fisher, cfisher@pov.org; Brian Geldin bgeldin@pov.org
POV online pressroom: www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom
