Even as China’s explosive growth has made it synonymous with superlatives of size and scale, few projects have been bigger than the construction of the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze. But in the midst of adapting to the dam’s modern energy demands, ancient ways of life along the river are disappearing behind its rising tides. Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang follows the impact of the dam’s construction on local inhabitants by focusing on Yu Shui, a young woman who works on a cruise ship ferrying tourists through the doomed areas, and whose family will be displaced when the project is complete. Up the Yangtze captures the stunning natural landscape that will soon be underwater while documenting the people whose way of life will disappear with it.

Presented as part of the Depth of Field 2009-2010 Series: Adaptology: Natural Selections on Humans & the Environment

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