Filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matt O’Neil spent last year traveling in China and documenting the anger of parents that had lost children in collapsed schools from the May earthquake. Their time in China resulted in the film “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province,” and a cold reception from the Chinese government while filming.

Well now that coolness has turned to ice as both filmmakers had their visa applications rejected by Chinese officials.  The two were hoping to travel to the Beijing Independent Film Festival to present their film:

“‘We are extremely disappointed that the Chinese government denied our request for visas and that we will not be permitted to discuss this film with a Chinese audience in Beijing,’ Mr. Alpert and Mr. O’Neill said in a joint e-mail message. ‘The denial of our visas fits in with a pattern of what seems to be a complete commitment on the part of this Chinese government to crush any inquiry into the possibility of wrongful deaths during the earthquake in Sichuan.’”

This fits in with all the efforts by the Chinese government to silence any talk about the collapsed schools and the 5,000 plus children that died or are missing.  And not surprisingly the website for the film is blocked in China, although the film is still expected to screen at the film festival.