Join us for a NYWIFT Member Screening of the documentary feature The Dating Game at DCTV Firehouse Cinema, followed by a Q&A with Director & Producer Violet Du Feng and Executive Producer Rebecca Lichtenfeld. Moderated by NYWIFT CEO Cynthia Lopez.
Date: Friday, December 12, 2025
Time: 7:00pm ET
Location: DCTV (87 Lafayette Street, NY 10013)
Price: $16 general *(Use code datingnywift for 15% off)
About the Film
The Dating Game
Runtime: 90 min
Director: Violet Du Feng
Producers: Violet Du Feng, Joanna Natasegara, James Costa, Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas
Editor: John Farbrother
Composer: Chad Cannon
Set in China, where eligible men outnumber women by over 30 million, The Dating Game is the story of Zhou, Li, and Wu, three bachelors embarking on a seven-day dating camp, led by Hao, one of China’s most sought-after dating coaches.
In their last-ditch effort to find love, the bachelors chuckle and bond as Hao makes them over, altering how they look and act online—and in real life. It’s all part of Hao’s signature “strategic deception,” a series of techniques designed to, purportedly, make humans connect. Hao’s credentials? Hao successfully wooed Wen, a stylish, educated city-girl—a real catch who is now his wife.
As our three bachelors stumble through the camp’s awkward challenges, they try to make sense of their authentic and constructed selves, and find the self-confidence they need to land that date. The Dating Game is, on the surface, a whimsical romp through courtship in the digital age, but it also reveals the social challenges that leave us questioning how we seek human connection.
Q&A Participants
Violet Du Feng (Director & Producer) is an Emmy-winning filmmaker and an adjunct professor at Columbia University. She has directed, produced and executive produced 14 documentaries, including the Oscar-shortlisted, Peabody and Emmy-nominated Hidden Letters with broadcast in 15 countries; Harbor From the Holocaust, a CPB/PBS special film with music performed by Yo-yo Ma. Her producing credits include Night of Nights, Dear Mother, I Meant to Write About Death, Singing in the Wilderness, Confucian Dream, Maineland and Please Remember Me. She is a recipient of the 2024 Chicken and Egg Award, 2023 Sundance Momentum Fellowship, 2021 Rockwood JustFilms Fellowship and 2018 Sundance Creative Producing Fellowship. Violet has served as an advisor for Sundance’s Creative Producing Lab, AIDC, CAAM, Hot Docs, Doc Edge, CNEX and the Shanghai Film Festival. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Documentary branch.
Rebecca (Becky) Lichtenfeld is an Emmy award-winning producer and impact strategist guided by the belief that media and the arts play a vital role in the advancement of human rights. Over the past two decades Becky has executed ‘creative advocacy’ projects involving filmmakers, artists, heads of state and organizers from around the globe. The power of narrative is a theme woven throughout Becky’s work. Before joining InMaat as Executive Director, Rebecca directed the Storytelling portfolio at the Bertha Foundation, where she was involved in the production and impact distribution of several Oscar-nominated and winning feature-length documentaries. Prior to that, she worked at WITNESS, an international non-profit that uses video as a tool in defense of human rights.
Cynthia López is an award-winning media strategist, and former Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, where she implemented strategies to support film and TV production throughout the five boroughs. López is the recipient of many coveted industry awards including: 11 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, a Special Emmy Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking, three Peabody Awards, and two duPont-Columbia Awards. In addition, she received the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Award. Prior to working as Commissioner, López was Executive Vice President and co-Executive Producer of the award-winning PBS documentary series American Documentary | POV, and was involved in the organization’s strategic growth and creative development for 14 years. Her ability to forge strategic partnerships among corporate and public interest media has been a signature of her work. Notable partnerships include: New York Times, Reuters, Al-Jazeera Network, Discovery Communications, The Moth, Story Corps, Harpo Studios and ABC News, NIGHTLINE with Ted Koppel. López is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), and is proud to have spent her career collaborating with independent filmmakers across all portions of the film and television industry. She served on the Board of Trustees for the Paley Center, NYC & Company, Museum of the Moving Image and the Tribeca Film Institute Latin America Fund Advisory Board. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Color Congress, Latino Public Broadcasting, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors, and Women in Film & Television International (WIFTI).
DCTV Firehouse
87 Lafayette Street
NYC 10013
membership@nywift.org
Join the conversation on social media:
#nywift | @nywift
NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
