Asian Film Festival of Dallas 2008

Boomtown Beijing is a film about the city of Beijing, its people and their dreams the summer before the Olympics. The 2008 Olympics Games is China’s debutante ball on the world stage. “ Faster. Higher. Stronger” — the preparation for the Games has turned Beijing into a hot spot of frenzied growth. A 11 year old boy wants to beat the odds to become an Olympics torch-bearer. A road sweeper dreams of staging his own mass Olympics countdown performance. An aging blind athlete makes one last stab at a Paralympics medal before he retires from sports. Together, their stories and scenes of everyday life in the city give a snapshot of Beijing the summer before the Olympics. Boomtown Beijing is directed by Tan Siok Siok, an award-winning executive producer of international documentaries, focusing on the Greater China region. Her executive producer credits include award winning shows for Discovery Channel and Discovery Travel and Living. “Boomtown Beijing” is her first independent film. She directed the film with the assistance of her students while she was a visiting lecturer at the Beijing Film Academy.