Walk the Line (2024)

走线

Literally translated from the Mandarin Zou Xian, Walk the Line chronicles the perilous journey across the Darién Gap, the jungle corridor between Colombia and Panama that has become a route for asylum seekers heading to the United States. Amid China’s Zero-COVID aftermath, economic decline, human rights concerns, and growing uncertainty, Chinese migrants have become one of the fastest-growing groups arriving at the U.S. southern border. Filmed over eight months across multiple countries, the documentary follows several migrants: Ivan and Lee, a same-sex couple who concealed their identities until reaching the U.S. and hope their story inspires China’s LGBTQ+ community; Cindy, the only woman willing to appear on camera, who endures severe hardship in the jungle and detention at the border; and Mr. Yu, who lived in a van in Beijing to escape lockdowns before undertaking the journey, later rebuilding his life in Los Angeles.