eqhd Documentaries

Mao's Great Famine (2012x2)

Air date: Nov 25, 2012

In 1958, nine years after coming to power, Mao launched a program of industrialization called the "Great Leap Forward" intended to take China out of its almost medieval state of under-development. Poor planning and mismanagement plunged the country into economic chaos which caused an unprecedented famine and a death toll around 45 million. Based on previously unheard testimony by survivors, rare archive footage, secret documents and interviews with the leading historians on this catastrophe, this film provides a new insight into this folly.