Next : Automorphosis   >>

In Les Blank’s most recent work, the first shot on video, world-renowned American tea importer David Lee Hoffman journeys to remote regions of China in search of the finest handmade teas in the world. Not since Robert Fortune clandestinely made his way through the tea growing districts of China in 1843 to steal plants and seeds for the British Empire has a westerner attempted to gain access to the hidden world of tea, where farmers have been making it for generations. As the Chinese open their doors to the global marketplace, Hoffman opens their eyes to their own ancient tradition that links all of us to the distant past.