Skylight Kunming (2008)

Skylight Kunming, a 38-minute biodoc of the late Michael Sutherland of Santa Barbara, California, filmed in his adopted home of Kunming, China, sketches the pioneer credited with popularizing adventure mountain biking in Yunnan province, and introducing Yunnan-hemp clothes to the West. Vignettes of Sutherland, a hirsute and entertaining unofficial US ambassador, include farcical dealings with Communist officials, starlit discussions of insect behavior, and the spontaneous directing of gridlock traffic one morning, which earned a 'Goodhearted American' newspaper headline. He soon will be immortalized as a new lotus variety, the Michael Sutherland, by IWGS, the international registrar of lotus varieties.