Director: Tim Meara.
On the ribs of the oldest surviving Cello made around fifteen thirty eight its maker inscribed the words “Justice” and “Piety”, yet beneath its civilized surface the world of rare string instruments is a realm of undisclosed alliances, fierce rivalries and denigrating whispers; it’s history of fraud and fakery dates almost to the inception of the violin itself… The title of the documentary is inspired by the most perfectly preserved Stradivari violin in existence: The Messiah, which is displayed in a glass case at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum and was donated with the condition that it must never be played again. This film explores a rare and exclusive world. Owning one of Stradivari’s instruments now equates to great power and influence in the Music World. These instruments are so valuable that they are well beyond the capability of even the most famous musicians to own. Yet they have the unique capacity to produce sound so intensely beautiful and powerful that 350 years after their creation they remain one of the only objects in our cultural history to be unrivalled by anything modern technology and science can produce. What right, if any, will musicians have to play these unique instruments in the future? The film follows the Brit award winning violinist Ruth Palmer as she circumnavigates the globe in search of an instrument to play, and we hear the magic of Stradivari in the hands of the world’s greatest musicians including: Joshua Bell, James Ehnes, Heinrich Schiff, Natalie Clein and Steven Isserlis.

Director: Liu Zhihai.
Background: The Chinese government implemented family planning from 1970s,and the ‘illegal resident’ was one result of this policy – the person who cannot get his /her household registry with normal process by the relevant organization, such as the bastard, extra birth or who miss the household registry due to other reasons. In China, people will lose their legal identity and right of citizen if they don’t get their household registry, For example, they cannot go to school, marry or find a legal job. In addition, they cannot get a death certificate after pass away. Therefore, the offspring of ‘illegal resident’ are ‘illegal resident’ forever. Outline: A Jiao was pregnant with the child of her and Weiqiang, a local man, although they had not got married. Unfortunately, one day Weiqiang died in an accident, and then their daughter A Qing was born. Because A Jiao and Weiqiang were not married, A Qing, as an illegal bastard, can not register household and become an ‘illegal resident’. In order to let A Qing could go to school like other children, A Jiao tried many ways to solve her household registry. However, all the replies were same, A Qing cannot register household just because her mother didn’t got the marriage certificate. With a strong desire to let A Qing could have a normal life, at last A Jiao married a local simpleton under the suggestion of the Police Station superintendent just to get a marriage certificate which can use to solve A Qing’s household registry.