Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower

Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (2017) is an American documentary you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Joe Piscatella. It follows Joshua Wong, who at seventeen organized a student class boycott in Hong Kong after Beijing scaled back its promise of open democratic elections — and found himself at the front of something far larger.

The boycott grew into the weeks-long street occupations of 2014, known as the Umbrella Movement. The film tracks Wong and fellow activist Agnes Chow through rallies, arrests and negotiations, capturing the strange position of becoming internationally known at an age when most people are still figuring out their first job.

The documentary took the Audience Award at Sundance 2017. Piscatella stays close to the people rather than the geopolitics, so the film reads less like a briefing and more like a portrait. Stream Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower online on iFILM.