Thanks to a charitable screening of Restoring the Light arranged by the Rotterdam Eye Hospital last fall, a donation of medical equipment has arrived at the Fred Hollows Foundation in Yunnan in support of their efforts to restore sight in rural China.

Included in the set was:

- 50 pieces of PMMA IOL (intra-ocular lens)

- A trial lens set box containing several dozens spheres and cylinders, accessories, prisms and additional two lenses with bars

- one set of trial frames

Many thanks to the Rotterdam Eye Hospital, the Fred Hollows Foundation, Dirk De Korne, R. Koppelaar and Andrea van der Ploeg for enabling this to happen. We hope many people will benefit from the use of this equipment this year!

WHO’s senior representatives invited Dir/Prod Carol Liu to screen the film in Beijing and additionally featured the film at Manila’s Western Pacific Regional Office in celebration of its World Sight Day global campaign.

Some comments from Tom Hiatt: The film is absolutely beautiful. The stunning depiction of rural life implicitly offsets the explicit theme of “move to the city in order to alleviate poverty”. The raw treatment of the subjects and their plight is somehow cathartic. The happy nature of that amazing blind boy is inspiring and probably worthy of a film on its own! Thank you again for this great glimpse into this corner of the world.

Thank you to the World Health Organization for the important work you do!

Thanks to Rotterdam Eye Hospital and the Embassy of the Netherlands in China, Restoring the Light was featured at the Rotterdam Cinema this fall. The special event helped to raise 1,500 euros to support Restoring the Light’s continued social outreach and Li Juncheng’s education. Restoring the Light plans to transfer an accompanying medical equipment donation to the Fred Hollows Foundation in China.

Two dear friends were moved to action after seeing Restoring the Light at the Beijing Community Dinner and prepared a special fundraising bazaar and free community screening at their home.

I flew back to Beijing to attend an event filled with so much warmth and generosity. It was overwhelming to experience the care that each attendee put into the bazaar, in some cases, handcrafting items for the fair and for the overall good-will that each person brought to the event. I also appreciated all the new friends I made who came to speak to me following the film and to offer their advice and support.

Thank you so much Anita and Aggie for having made this really special experience possible.

July 21 was an epic day. We received such an overwhelming response to the Beijing Community Dinner screening of Restoring the Light that we decided to open a back-to-back 2 part screening event, with a screening plus afternoon tea at 4:30PM, and a second round with dinner at 7:30PM.

Little did we know we would be hit with the worst floods in Beijing in 60 years on that day. A brave forty-some folks still managed to show up, with some staying overnight at our beautiful venue, the Beijing Jingshan Redwall Hotel, tucked away behind the Forbidden City.

Thank you so much to Beijing Community Dinner for having made it a true community event and the Redwall Hotel for their hospitality and accommodation! We raised 4460 RMB to support Restoring the Light’s outreach and Li Juncheng’s education.

To make sure everyone gets a second chance at seeing the film, we are scheduled for  Dec 1 repeat screening this winter!

On May 2nd, we held a special screening of RESTORING THE LIGHT for students at Beijing Normal University’s graduate film program, followed by a talkback (Q&A) session with Carol.

June 11 saw a similar event at the Communication University of China.

Thank you to visiting professor 崔老师 for the warm invitation!