Wang reveals the Chinese government treating public protests against official abuses as graver offenses than the abuses themselves; she documents a regime of violence that suppresses dissent and sustains impunity.

| May 17, 2021

Ms. Wang shows an inordinate amount of courage, a kind of guerrilla tenacity, in following Ms. Ye through her protests in Hainan, and her subsequent harassment.

| Oct 14, 2016

The searing documentary "Hooligan Sparrow" is a portrait of courage.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 8, 2016

The chaotic audio and video footage of these altercations generates enormous drama even as it eclipses the issues at hand; though undeniably heroic, the documentary dwells less on its subject than on its own production.

| Sep 1, 2016

Gripping and thrilling, Nanfu Wang's debut documentary is a raw look at women's-rights activism in China.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 26, 2016

This raw and startling doc isn't about young rape victims in China and the institutions that enable the culprits. Instead, it's about the methods used to silence the activists who draw attention to those problems.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 25, 2016

Budding filmmakers can take away a valuable lesson from the documentary "Hooligan Sparrow": You don't need fancy camera equipment (or in some instances, even a camera) if you're passionate enough about the story you want to tell.

| Jul 28, 2016

A whistleblowing documentary made with fearless guerrilla cunning ...

| Jul 22, 2016

It's miraculous that the film exists at all.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 22, 2016

"Hooligan Sparrow," which Ms. Wang also shot and skillfully edited, has the pulse of a mainstream thriller but without the pacifying polish and tidiness.

| Jul 21, 2016

Other movies have more powerfully exposed the corruption of contemporary China, but few have so articulately confronted how women always seem to be the first citizens to have their wings clipped.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 21, 2016

[A] tremendous documentary ...

| Jul 20, 2016

Although Hooligan Sparrow is a protest film at heart, it is also a fascinating strategy and survival document.

| Jun 7, 2016

Wang's film has a grass roots, on-the-ground urgency: nervy, paranoid camerawork gives a sense of the realities of life on the sharp edge of activism.

Full Review | Mar 22, 2016

Hooligan Sparrow is a vital reminder of the importance of artistic and journalistic freedom, and that telling certain stories can be an inherently perilous proposition.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 22, 2016

Nearly the entire film is shot with hand-held cameras... Throughout, Wang makes a virtue out of necessity: Her on-the-run scoping and jarring cuts infuse the film with a sense of desperate danger befitting its subject matter.

| Mar 22, 2016