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Come join us for the next RAS film club event: we will watch the documentary Crocodile in the Yangtze – The Alibaba Story. The film-maker Porter Erisman will speak with us via Zoom after the screening.Crocodile in the Yangtze is a candid account of Jack Ma’s early days as a determined and visionary entrepreneur, who, after the failure of China Pages, launches Alibaba from a residential apartment and ultimately turns it into a 16,000-employee company in 2008. Drawn from 200 hours of archive footage of more than 35 sources, the film captures the emotional ups and downs of Jack Ma, including his company’s battles with the US giant eBay on the way to becoming China’s first global Internet company. The film-maker Porter Erisman, a then Alibaba Vice President who worked with Jack Ma for eight years, paints a striking portrait of Ma and his company, a witness of their triumphs and mistakes, en route to unprecedented success. The film received multiple accolades from international film festivals, including Best Documentary and Best Audience Award at the San Francisco Film Festival in 2012.About the SpeakerA native of Colorado USA, Porter Erisman first joined Alibaba Group in 2000, just as it moved out of Jack Ma’s apartment. After leaving Alibaba in 2008, Erisman went on to produce and direct the award-winning documentary film, Crocodile in the Yangtze – The Alibaba Story, which travelled to fifteen film festivals and was broadcast on Bloomberg Television. Erisman is also the bestselling author of Alibaba's World, translated into fifteen languages and selected by the Wall Street Journal as one of the “Best Business Books of 2016.” With a passion for global entrepreneurship, Erisman has served as a consultant to e-commerce companies in Africa, Asia and Latin America and has spoken at industry events in 40 countries. Most recently, he authored the book Six Billion Shoppers: The Companies Winning the Global E-Commerce Boom. Convener: Katherine Song Sponsored by 
