The Long Wait

  • Jury Award, DGA 26th Annual Student Film Awards

  • Official Selection, 2020 St. Louis International Film Festival

  • Official Selection, Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival 2021

  • Jury Award, Athens International Film+Video Festival 2021

  • Official Selection, Women Makes Waves Int’l Film Festival 2021, Taiwan

  • Best Short Film by a first-time filmmaker, Next Generation Indie Film Awards 2021

 

The Long Wait tells the story of three courageous Chinese women claiming their reproductive rights in a country that denies single and lesbian women access to assisted fertility treatment. 

 

In the aftermath of the decades-long One-child policy, China faces a low birth rate, a fast aging population and all the troubles that will come with it. The government turned overnight from restricting its citizens to have only one child to encouraging people to have more children. 

But China still wants to decide who can have babies, and how. The law says everyone enjoys reproductions rights. But it bans medical institutions from providing single women with fertility treatments, such as egg freezing, IVF, or using a sperm bank. Meanwhile, single men can freeze their sperm. In some regions, single women still face hefty fines even after they give birth. They don’t enjoy certain government insurances for mothers, and they might need to go through extra trouble to get their child legal status.

The economic growth in the past 30 years has created a middle-class and many women can now afford to live a comfortable life independently. They now have the chance to choose to be single. But China’s law and regulations didn’t keep up. Women still face widespread discrimination and inequalities, coming from deep-rooted culture and institutionalized norms.

Directed/filmed/edited by Shuang Li

Creative Advisors: Cassandra Herrman, Kelly Whalen, Mike Shen

Technical Advisor & Colorist: Chris O’Dea

Content Advisors: Carrie Lozano, Kara Platoni, Xiaofei Guo

Composer: Leud Fei Deng

Post production sound: IMRSV SOUND

Sound Supervisor: Jacob Bloomfield-Misrach

Rerecording Mixer: Bijan Sharifi

Sound Design: William Sammons 

Project Manager: Becky Korman