In one of the poorest nations on earth, the Central African Republic, native sand diver Thomas Boa and construction manager Jianmin Luan, a Chinese national, accept that struggle and risk are the price of tomorrow’s rest and reward: both are prepared to “Eat Bitter.” The eye-opening documentary raises the age-old question of what we are prepared to sacrifice for a better tomorrow, without a promise that it will ever arrive.
A Chinese national, Ningyi Sun is a film director, writer, and actor and a grantee of Sundance, Hot Docs Blue Ice, Ford Foundation, IDFA Bertha Fund, and Chicken & Egg Pictures . Her documentary feature Eat Bitter about a Chinese construction manager and a local sand laborer pursuing happiness in a civil war in the Central African Republic was her first attempt at making a film. Eat Bitter had its world premiere at CPH:DOX in 2023 and has been screened in Hot Docs, Vision du Reel, Shanghai International Film Festival, Encounters South Africa Documentary Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Doc Edge and more. Before diving into the filmmaking world, she worked for the United Nations peace operation in the Central African Republic.
