SOFT POWER (work-in-progress)

CLIP 1 (3:40)

CLIP 2 (3:48)

Soft Power is the ability to obtain what you want through co-option and attraction rather than the hard power of coercion and payment. In international politics, the soft power of a country rests primarily on three resources: its culture (in places where it is attractive to others), its political values (when it lives up to them at home and abroad), and its foreign policies (when they are seen as legitimate and having moral authority.)

In this new work-in-progress documentary directed by Vanessa Hope and produced by Ted Hope, we explore how the People's Republic of China has developed and evolved it soft power over the years, and how that power is enabling China to become a cultural superpower.

HIGHWAY COURTESANS

CLIP 1 (3:10)

CLIP 2 (3:29)

CLIP 3 (2:08)

What happens when an independent-minded young girl is born into a centuries-old tradition of prostitution?

Highway Courtesans chronicles the story of young women living in the Bachara community in rural India—the last hold-out of a custom that started with ancient palace courtesans and survives today with the sanctioned prostitution of every Bachara family’s oldest daughter. Guddi, Shana and their neighbor Sungita serve a daily stream of roadside truckers to support their families. Their work as prostitutes forms the core of the local economy, but their contemporary ideas about freedom of choice, gender and self-determination slowly intrude on the Bachara way of life. Beautifully filmed and remarkably candid, this provocative coming-of-age film follows Guddi Chauhan from age 16 to 23 as she struggles to realize her dreams in a community caught between traditional and contemporary values.