NEW YORK—Audience members who attended a weekend screening of a documentary about forced organ harvesting said more people should learn about the sinister state crime that’s happening in China, on Nov. 9 at the Village East by Angelika cinema.

Nabil Hamati, a Brooklyn resident working in the medical field, told The Epoch Times that the film gave him perspective and made him thankful for the life he has in America.

He said that he didn’t know about China’s state-sanctioned practice of forced organ harvesting against prisoners of conscience before seeing the documentary, and he was particularly touched by the perseverance of the two families searching for their loved ones in the film.

“I mean humanity, since the time of Jesus, until now, hope is all we have. So if you don’t have hope, then you might as well just give it up and put it in the past. So it’s good that people have hope, they keep on going strong, and hopefully one day we can put [the Chinese] Communist Party in the past,” he said.

Hamati encouraged others to spread the word, saying it would inspire “the whole community of humans to work together to end something as big as this problem.”

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His sister, Maya Hamati, said the film is “very informative.”

“I think the least we can do is to spread awareness about things of this nature,” she told The Epoch Times. “After World War II, we were told never again, but there’s been countless of instances where the ‘never again’ has happened and it continues to happen.”

This is why films like this one should be talked about and understood, she said.

“Because the more we do that, I think the less room there is for more corruption.”

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual meditation practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It has been brutally persecuted in China since 1999.

Lynne Dilorenzo, a business owner, was still tearful after watching the documentary. The film mentioned the account of a teacher who was tortured and sexually abused in prison before doctors took her organs.

That woman was likely dying “for somebody who’s probably rich, who could afford an organ,” she told The Epoch Times.

“Who are these people getting organs? Do they know how they’re getting the organs?”

Dilorenzo said watching the film made her feel “very, very heavy,” and she intends to make sure her family and friends know about this.

“Everyone needs to realize what’s going on, because it is a genocide, and we all need to bring it to light and [stop] it,” she said.

Kevin Dious, chief of staff to Reddit’s CEO, told The Epoch Times that it was “tragic and sad” to learn about the persecution in China.

“In this age, this day and age, all the technology, all the media we have, that things like this can still happen and be hidden,” Dious said. “We have to tell these stories [and] the people need to know. And this is the power of film, that you can reach people in ways I guess the general media cannot.”

Following the presentation, the film’s director, Peabody Award winner Raymond Zhang, spoke to audience members in a Q&A session. He spoke about how several movie theaters in Taiwan received bomb threats for screening his film in October. Despite that, he said he had a lot of hope for Taiwan’s democracy.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Zhang said he was born in China and still loves the land. His biggest hope is for the people there to “live a safer life,” he said.