Shortly after graduating from Colby in 2000, Jeff Daniels learned about the plight of the Uighur people—Muslims in western China worried that their culture was being subsumed by the Han Chinese. Years of research culminated in his 2009 documentary film, The 10 Conditions of Love, about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.

In July, after a Chinese official asked to have the film pulled from the prestigious Melbourne International Film Festival, Daniels said in a GuardianUK blogpost, “Ironically, the one country that wants to silence my film gave it press I could never afford.”

Tensions escalated as the screening neared, with cyberattacks on the film festival’s Web site and online ticket sales. Interest built. The film’s premiere was moved to the 1,500-seat city hall venue and still sold out, the New York Times reported Aug. 10.

On Sept. 11 the Associated Press reported on appearances by Kadeer and the Dalai Lama in Prague, and noted that Daniels’s film was being shown as part of the Peace, Democracy and Human Rights in Asia conference there.