more than 200 millions<\/a> Americans who use TikTok. They are from vastly different parts of the country\u2014Arizona, Tennessee, and Mississippi. One is a hard-core Democrat, while another is a rising Republican influencer, and the third only makes funny, non-political content. \u201cIn some way, TikTok did the first round of screening for us,\u201d Wu said in an interview.<\/p>\nWu\u2019s camera was rolling during important moments, including the one day in 2025 when TikTok briefly went dark in the US to protest Biden\u2019s imminent ban. Viewers of the film witness the exact second when the app disappeared for American users and the immediate reactions of the influencers.<\/p>\n
The story of the TikTok ban was long and winding. It went through countless debates and battles when it passed through Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House. The app went from being Trump\u2019s pet issue, to a rare point of bipartisan consensus under Biden, to something Trump strongly opposed, before eventually becoming a bargaining chip in the US-China trade war. It was exhausting to follow it back then as a reporter, and the constant twists made it impossible to conclude what this whole saga meant for the US. But Wu\u2019s documentary succeeds in finally making some sense out of the madness. \u201cAs a filmmaker, my intention is to make people go back and relive that experience, and think about what that experience revealed,\u201d Wu says.<\/p>\n
An All-American Tale<\/h2>\n
Wu previously worked in China\u2019s tech industry before he began moonlighting as a documentary filmmaker. His earlier movie, People\u2019s Republic of Desire<\/em>, was an intimate look at China\u2019s then-booming livestreaming industry, which predated the success of TikTok and short-form video in the US. Because of Wu\u2019s personal and professional background, I expected his film to discuss TikTok\u2019s Chinese origins in detail, but it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\nWu says he made that decision because the story about the TikTok ban was more American than it is Chinese. To be fair, the narrative was shaped partially by the fact that TikTok didn\u2019t give Wu access throughout the production process, despite his repeated outreach to the company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n