Better Angels premiered in Beijing last Thursday prior to its official release date on Tuesday. The documentary features stories about several Chinese and American individuals and also includes a number of heavyweight interviews from within the fields of business and politics as the backdrop for the film. Photo: Liu Caiyu/GT

Better Angels, a documentary featuring ordinary people from the US and China that casts new light on the turbulent China-US relations, is scheduled for release on Tuesday in China.

Directed by Oscar-winning director Malcolm Clarke, Better Angels features stories about several Chinese and American individuals and also includes a number of heavyweight interviews from within the fields of business and politics as the backdrop for the film. 

Kicking off with an interview with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who warns that "If we [the US and China] are to clash, it would be a disaster for the whole world," the documentary tries to discover common ground between the two countries.

Speaking with the Global Times in an exclusive interview in Beijing recently, Clarke said "Fundamentally the Chinese dream and American dream are so similar. We all want to be safe, want to make a good living, we all want to eat well and breathe clear air and drinking clean water and we all want our kid to have a better education than we had."

The film shows the future path of China-US relations no matter how the bilateral relations go, and encourages that we cooperate in all kinds of fields we can, work together and respect each other's differences, Clarke noted. 

The documentary tells the stories of various individuals including a former US marine who teaches English and football in China and finds love in the foreign country and a blind Chinese masseuse who is treated kindly by local strangers on a backpacking trip to the US.

Americans, for a long time, held the notion that China is a rural, non-industrial and non-technological country while the US is exceptional, but suddenly, China is getting stronger which makes Americans worry, Clarke said.

Americans don't hate the Chinese but the voices of some US politicians are misleading the public, Clarke said.

The producer of the film, Han Yi, an award-winning Chinese producer, told the Global Times that when the documentary was being promoted in the US, it was difficult to get the media to attend their media events or to even find a marketing company willing to cooperate due to the current tense atmosphere between the two nations. "To be honest, I have not seen so much hatred toward China in the US for many years." 

But interestingly, when Better Angels was being screened in Iowa, the heart of Trump country, it was liked by the locals. "They have never really understood what Chinese people were like but suddenly they realize that ordinary Chinese people are very much like them. It's like an ice breaker," Clarke said in the interview. 

The world needs more works featuring China and the Chinese people through which the stories of the ordinary will be told. "Not just through journalism, but through television, movies and fictions," Clarke called for. 

Better Angels has premiered in several cities in China prior to its official release date on Tuesday. Many have posted online hailing the documentary and saying Americans are welcome to visit China to dismiss their biases and stereotypes about China, especially amid the trade war.