State Organs – A multi award-winning documentary, 2025 Oscar Contender

State Organs film shocks Hills residents, sheds light on lucrative trade in China.

Shocked, speechless and even outraged. The emotions filled the hall at Pioneer Theatre Community Centre on June 11 at the screening of an internationally acclaimed documentary State Organs. This is the first time the film was screened in Castle Hill.

The film delves deep into the tragedy behind China’s lucrative multi-billion dollar organ trade. Unlike in Australia, where organ donation is free and voluntary, China has been running a state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting business for over 2 decades.

Organized by local Hills area volunteers, the film attracted a sizable audience, including members of the local Council.

“I was deeply moved, the film left a lasting impression  on my heart and    soul. It powerfully conveyed the depth of the tragedy, and I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to witness such an important story,” said Councillor Jane Grevtseva, after watching the film. I will do everything I can to help raise awareness and ensure this story reaches more hearts and minds,” she added.

The film follows the lives of ordinary Chinese citizens, who spent years looking for justice in a desperate search of how their loved ones died. To their horror, after years of investigation, they were forced to come to a painful realization that their family members were murdered in detention for their belief in the spiritual practice of Falun Dafa. They were possibly some of the many thousands of victims of forced organ harvesting.

Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a spiritual practice that gained significant popularity in China in the 1990s. A survey in 1999 revealed that around 100 million people were practicing this popular qigong practice, often described as “Chinese yoga” because of its slow-moving exercises.

“Falun Dafa was hugely popular in China early on. Its gentle exercises brought numerous health benefits and mental wellbeing to millions of people,” explained Emmy Pfister, the local Hills resident and organizer of the film screening.

“It was widely supported by the Government, until the Chinese Communist Party realized that it became a spiritual movement outside of its control. That is when the Government banned Falun Gong and unleashed a brutal persecution of its followers”.

Reports of forced organ harvesting in China first surfaced in 2006, after a whistleblower came forward in the US with claims that her husband harvested thousands of corneas at a secret hospital facility. What followed were years of investigations by experts, which led to numerous credible reports published, detailing the scale of the crimes.

The 2016 report by Ethan Guttman, a renowned author and investigator, estimated that between 60,000 to 100,000 organs were harvested annually across the hundreds of hospitals in China. The 700-page report detailed an impressive amount of data and sources, including analysis of the hospital internal records, bed occupancy rates and surgery statistics.

The investigations culminated in 2019, when an international investigation that lasted 12 months and headed by the former Slobodan Milosevic trial judge, Sir Geoffrey Nice, concluded that prisoners of conscience were indeed being murdered on a large scale for their organs, and majority of those were Falun Gong practitioners.

Following the State Organs screening, audience engaged in a dynamic QA session. Most were asking how Australians can help stop the horrific crimes taking place.

“The best thing one can do is raise more awareness. Talk to your friends, to your family, to your local Member of Parliament,” said Mr John Deller from the Falun Dafa Association.

“These crimes have been allowed to continue for this long, only because the rest of the world was silent”.

Next coming (free) screening: Mortdale Community Centre on July 16

Get your Tickets for 16 July Screening