Total Trust

The digital possibilities of social control in China have led to an unprecedented level of state surveillance. Through self-censorship or spying on neighbors, surveillance covers not only those perceived as a threat by the government, but increasingly and ever more totally the ordinary citizen: whether buying flowers, taking your child to school, or taking out the trash at night. Big Data and digital technologies are already being used as weapons to curtail freedoms. Step by step, the social and political behavior of the Chinese is changing. With the documentary film “Total Trust”, Chinese filmmaker Jialing Zhang, who lives in the USA, succeeds in providing an exclusive and previously never possible intimate insight into the interior of China. She tells a deeply disturbing story about technology, (self-)censorship and abuse of power.