Why You Should Watch May the Soil Be Everywhere at KCUFF 2025

Here's what you need to know: this was one of the standout films at True/False this year, which means it's already proven itself with audiences who know what creative documentary can do. Director Yehui Zhao has crafted something that could easily be heavy and serious, but instead it's fun and funny without losing any of its emotional weight.

The setup: a peasant family in remote China enduring war, revolution, and famine before scattering across the world. But Zhao takes this potentially overwhelming story and turns it into something incredibly constructed and beautiful. She's digging into her own family's connection to a forgotten village in the Loess Plateau mountains, but the way she does it is what makes this special.

This isn't your typical talking heads documentary. Zhao mixes oral history with community theater, performance with animation, creating what feels like a living archive where the past keeps bleeding into the present. Four generations of history get chronicled, but it never feels like homework. It's creative nonfiction at its best; taking real stories and finding new ways to tell them.

What makes this work is how it balances the serious with the playful. Yes, it's about family and belonging and the weight of history, but it'll also make you laugh. That's what elevates it beyond just being another family heritage doc. Zhao understands that life contains multitudes, even in the hardest circumstances.

The True/False pedigree means this is already festival-tested and audience-approved. That festival doesn't mess around with their selections, so when something stands out there, you know it's worth your time.

May the Soil Be Everywhere screens Saturday, September 20, 2025 at 4:00pm. Come see why True/False audiences couldn't stop talking about this one.