© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: books, Evan Osnos, film, inequality, literature, materialism, urbanization, wealth gap
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The CCTV logo, with a vendetta.

V for Vendetta, the 2005 film about a secretive, anti-totalitarian masked crusader, has long been banned in China. So when CCTV aired the uncut film today, viewers couldn’t believe their eyes. The event is now the second-most discussed topic on Weibo.

The official Weibo account @CCTV6WatchMoviesonTV announced this breakthrough moment:

CCTV6WatchMoviesonTV: V for Vendetta is on tonight at 9:52 p.m. We’ll post the plot synopsis in advance. Movie-lovers, get ready for a treat!

CCTV6打开电视看电影：《V字别动队》今晚21:52播出，提前预告剧情，影迷们可以先过过瘾哦

CCTV acknowledges that plenty of people have seen V for Vendetta despite the ban. Pirated DVDs and downloads make it easy for savvy people to see any film or TV show they like.

CCTV6’s weibo was reposted over 400 times, but has zero comments. It’s likely any comments posted were deleted.

Shocked netizens are wondering what this moment could mean for the future of censorship in China:

NotKouDe: These past few months, not only has CCTV broadcasted an interview with “Labor Camp University Village Official Ren Jianyu,” last night they also aired a film that is considered a metaphorical criticism of government–“V For Vendetta.” It’s been one unbelievable action after another! Could they be testing the waters for greater room for free speech? Or perhaps this was just the new leadership trying to butter up us rabble?

我不是寇德：最近这个月，央视不仅播放了被“劳教的大学村官任建宇”的采访，昨晚更是播放了被认为是带有暗喻政府意味的#V字仇杀队#，接二连三让人惊讶的行为，这会是言论放宽的探路石么？又或者只是新领导上台给我等屁民的一点甜头而已？

HulijunBigAdventure: Artists use lies to tell the truth. Politicians use lies to cover up the truth. In an unprecedented move, CCTV broadcasted “V For Vendetta” for the very first time, and it’s cause for celebration. It has given people hope for reform. Ideas are bulletproof.

狐狸君的人生大冒险：艺术家用谎言道出真相，政客用谎言掩盖真相。央视第一次在大陆破天荒地播放《V字仇杀队》是可喜可贺的，让人民看到了改革的希望。思想是不怕子弹的。

BeijingGrassrootsPeoplesRadio: At 10 p.m. this evening, CCTV will broadcast the film V For Vendetta. Because of this film’s anti-dictatorship, freedom-fighting message, it was previously banned by the government. Although everyone online is very familiar with the film, this is its first open broadcasted on television–by none other than CCTV. Does this signal that the government will relax its control of the media and the Internet a bit? Let’s all tune in at 10 and witness this historical moment together.

北 京草根人民广播电台：今天晚上十点，CCTV6将播出电影《V字仇杀队》，这部反对独裁，争取自由的电影历来是被政府列为禁片的，虽然在网络上为众人所熟 知，但是在大陆公开放映这还是第一次，并且还在中央电视台，这似乎也向大家传递出一个信号，政府对于媒体和网络的管制在一点点解除？十点让我们来一起见证 这一历史性的时刻。

HammerheadScrewdriver: Holy crap! Later tonight I’ll to have go check to see if it was cut off.

锤子头镰刀刃：我擦,今晚上回去看看有没有删改. (12月14日 16:28)

“CCTV airs V for Vendetta” is the second-most discussed topic on Weibo right now.

In fact, it wasn’t cut off.

Qiushuidanyuou: December 21, 2012 is coming! Unbelievably, Imperial Court TV is going to broadcast V For Vendetta! And to think, when I wrote an online review of the movie back in the day, it was deleted.

秋水淡于鸥：2012，12，21就要到了~朝廷台居然也放V字仇杀队了，想当年我写在天涯的影评都被结扎了

Some people have pointed out that CCTV has rendered the film’s title as “V Commando Team” (V字别动队), instead of using the common “V Revenge Killing Squad” (V字仇杀队):

ZhanZhaofengNoSuspense: #V Commando Team# Christ, what is this “V Commando Team” crap? They can’t even type out the two characters for “vendetta”?

湛兆丰无悬念：#V字仇杀队# 天，什么V字别动队，仇杀两个字不能打出来么

Netizens who have scaled the wall are sharing their excitement on Twitter:

CCTV连《V字仇杀队》都能播放了，这难道不是新班子决心改革的前兆？莫非是临时工干的？

— 此俊杰非彼俊杰 (@chengjunjie001) December 14, 2012

chengjunjie001: Even something like “V For Vendetta” can be aired on CCTV now. Could this be sign the new leadership team has really committed to enacting reform? Unless this was just another temp worker mistake…

CCTV6完整播出了《V字别动队》（《V字仇杀队》），并未中断。

— 北风（温云超） (@wenyunchao) December 14, 2012

wenyunchao: CCTV6 aired the entirety of V for Vendetta, and didn’t cut it off in the middle.

这部好片子现在这个形势下放映太合时宜了。独裁者、牢狱、秘密警察、媒体控制、人祸横行、清除“异端”…… 恐惧、逃避、质疑谎言、战胜恐惧、反抗、推翻暴政…… 中国的专制者和公民也是如此关系。RT@wenyunchao CCTV6完整播出了《V字别动队》（《V字仇杀队》），并未中断。

— Hu Jia 胡佳 (@hu_jia) December 14, 2012

hu_jia: This great film couldn’t be any more appropriate for our current situation. Dictators, prisons, secret police, control of the media, man-made disasters, eliminating “heretics”… terror, evasion, questioning lies, victory over fear, resistance, overthrowing tyranny… So, too, is the relationship between China’s dictators and its citizens.

@Kunshou shared a Photoshopped version of Xinwen Lianbo, paraphrasing the scene in which V hijacks the state broadcasting system to issue a call for revolution:

Back on Weibo, Southern Weekend elicited hopeful comments from its readers:

SouthernDaily: -CCTV Airs “V Commando Team”- People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.–V Commando Team will air on the evening of December 14 on CCTV6. As one Internet user said, “[The protagonist] is a terrorist, a crazy person, a gentleman, a thinker, a revolutionary and, in the eyes of the government, a major villain. He symbolizes resistance and advocates the use of violence to liberate the minds of an oppressed people. Tonight, CCTV’s broadcast has many Internet users feeling ‘very surprised.’”

南方日报：【央视播出“V字 别动队”】人民不应该害怕政府，政府应该害怕人民——V字别动队(12月14日晚CCTV6）原名“V字仇杀队”。有网友评价说：他是一名恐怖分子，疯 子，绅士，思想家，革命家，政府眼里的大反派。他象征反抗，崇尚暴力主义来解放被压迫的人民的心灵。今晚，央视播出让很多网友“很意外”。

This reader rejoices:

Jingtingsongfeng: Sooner or later, there will come a day when we’ll all become V!

靜聽松風-：终有一天，我们都会变成V！

Translation by Little Bluegill.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CCTV, censorship, film, V for Vendetta
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But in the last few years, more and more filmmakers like Yang have been trying to carve out a new middle ground: They are developing scripts for art house-style movies that can win a “dragon seal” (Chinese censors’ official stamp of endorsement). As the number of these government-approved indie films grows, a nascent Chinese industry — production houses and exhibitors — is emerging to support them.

The trend is not without its detractors, who fret that a new generation of filmmakers may be sacrificing its artistic integrity. But Yang and others say independent filmmaking in China can be broader than just underground cinema.

While non-dragon seal films can be sold only overseas or online, Yang said applying for a dragon seal, so that a film can be screened domestically, does not necessarily mean making a deal with the devil.

Among members of the younger generation, though, there seems to be an expectation — perhaps naive, perhaps practical — that they will simply hop back and forth between the two worlds of dragon seal and underground independent film with little conflict.

Indie films in China continue to run into trouble with the government with the power outages earlier this year at the Beijing Independent Film Festival. While the “dragon seal” is available for filmmakers, other filmmakers, such as Lou Ye, have taken a more confrontational approach when dealing with government censorship.

See also “Devils on the Doorstep”: Film Censorship Up Close, via CDT.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dragon seal, film, film censorship, film industry, Lou Ye, SARFT, yang jin
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The exhibition is about the notion of history—Tiananmen as a drastic exemplification—which is experienced by individuals, later resides in personal memories, and of which the emotional overtones transform across generations. To shed light on the dialogue and dialectic of the cross-generational memories and its representation in films and videos, the exhibition is conceived in a polyphonic manner. Each of the three parts stands for a passage of perceiving or comprehending history as part of our lives, distinct yet contrapuntal to each other. Altogether they form a texture which reflects the complex of the relations between history and the persons who made and are made by it.

Originally scheduled for just two days, the exhibit will now run through September 27. More information about the video installation, film screening and live events that comprise the exhibition is available from My Tiananmen’s Tumblr site.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1989 protests, film, London, Lou Ye, shu haolun, Tiananmen
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Western studios are increasingly inclined to excise potentially negative references to China in the hope that the films can pass muster with Chinese censors and land one of several dozen coveted annual revenue-sharing import quota slots in Chinese cinemas.

[…] Mainland censors have long taken out scenes they deem culturally or politically offensive. In 2007, a Chinese pirate character played by Chow Yun-fat was removed from Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” for its release in China. The character is bald, has a long beard and long fingernails. At one point, he recites a poem in Cantonese, not Mandarin, which Beijing promotes as the nation’s common language.

[…] “I’m not sure working with China is that different from working with a big studio,” said Michael London, an independent film producer who has had discussions with Chinese entities on a co-production. “I’m being partly facetious, of course. But I do think most producers in this climate have long since stopped looking askance at any entity that can help get their movie made. There are always going to be challenges and compromises.”

Censorship has not dampened the Chinese market’s response films to films such as Men in Black 3 and the recently re-launched Titanic, but many spectators are concerned about Hollywood’s growing chumminess with China. University of Southern California professor Stanley Rosen observed that Hollywood has become even more sensitive to the portrayal of Chinese people than the Chinese government. He worries that moviegoers could receive a positively-biased view of China.

The Diplomat also reported on Hollywood’s “kowtowing” to China in February. These concerns flared up particularly strongly last October, when human rights groups protested against Relativity Media’s decision to film in Linyi, Shandong, near the site of blind dissident Chen Guangcheng’s illegal house arrest.

© Wendy Qian for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chow Yun-fat, film, film censorship, media market, USC
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The teen tentpole, which stars Jennifer Lawrence and has already grossed $620 million in worldwide box office, will screen in the fast-growing Asian market in the first half of June.

That’s a coup for Lionsgate as the Suzanne Collins books, on which the Hunger Games movie franchise is based, have not sold as widely overseas as in North America. Getting the Lionsgate title into China, and also coming up in Japan, gets Hunger Games into an even bigger world market than the one earlier primed by the book series.

And Lionsgate is betting that Chinese cinema-goers that see The Hunger Games will also be more likely to see the Catching Fire sequel, should it also get approval for a release in China.

The Hunger Games will be among the first major Hollywood films to be released in China under the landmark revenue sharing agreement announced in February that allows foreign distributors to collect up to 25 percent of a film’s receipts in China. Previously, Western distributors were allotted just 13 percent-17 percent of their films’ grosses in the country.

China and Hollywood’s relationship seems to be improving since their agreement in February that the quota for foreign films in China has been increased from 20 to 34 films a year. According to Bloomberg, this gives Hollywood access to the third largest film market in the world:

China is becoming more important to U.S. filmmakers as the country adds more movie theaters, loosens restrictions on Western films and seeks more co-productions. Box-office sales there increased 35 percent to $2 billion in 2011, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. U.S. receipts were $10.2 billion, according to the group.

A 3-D version of the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic” has taken in $134 million in China since it was released there on April 10, according to Box Office Mojo, a film researcher.

Lions Gate fell 3.6 percent to $11.47 at yesterday in New York trading. The shares have gained 38 percent this year.

See also Hollywood Kowtows to China and SEC Investigates Hollywood’s China Play via CDT.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cinema, film, film industry, hollywood
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Chongqing’s ordinary cops can hardly wait. Mr. Wang and Mr. Bo [Xilai, Chongqing's Communist Party secretary] are local heroes for their aggressive action in smashing the gangs that ran the city for years, with 30 billion renminbi, or $4.7 billion, in annual loan-sharking businesses, as well as gambling, prostitution and other activities extending deep into daily life, officials said.

“We all know it’s going to be excellent,” said Huang Shu, a Chongqing police officer, of the planned movie.

[...]More than three decades of rapid economic growth in a deeply networked society within a politically opaque state have produced flourishing mafias, said Kerry Brown, head of the Asia Program at Chatham House, a research organization in London.

[...]The writers were given access to any suspect they wanted, and to any file, many stamped “Top Secret.” The book was to be written with an eye to posterity, and only objectivity and truth could ensure that, Mr. Wang said.

For more on Wang Lijun, see this 2009 photo and explanation of Wang’s work to uncover internal corruption, via CDT.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bo Xilai, Chongqing, Chongqing corruption, crime, film, mafia, Wang Lijun
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The Chinese government proclaimed in January 2009 that a festival called “Serf Liberation Day” was to be celebrated in Tibet on March 28 every year to commemorate the “liberation” of Tibetans by the People’s Liberation Army. Woeser takes this festival as her starting point and in particular the replaying of the 1963 propaganda film “Serf” on Tibetan TV. Amongst Tibetans, the film is more commonly called “Jampa”, the name of the protagonist.

When the CCP propaganda film “Serf” pompously reappeared on Tibetan TV during the “Serf Liberation Day” celebrations, I felt like I was taken back to my childhood during which I had been forcefully brainwashed by the “red devil”. Indeed, I can only use “red devil” to describe this film and its content: for decades, the self-acclaimed “liberators” and “great benefactors” have in fact slowly swallowed up the entire Tibetan region. Deep hatred made me get up and leave; even though for a writer, this would have been an opportunity to study how those in power are rewriting history, but the harm I have experienced over the years made it impossible for me to endure these blatant lies.

In 2009, the International Campaign for Tibet published a collection of writings by Tibetan writers titled “Like Gold that Fears No Fire: New Writing from Tibet”. The genres ranged from poems, essays, and diary entries to critical art, and commentaries. The central theme is the protests that swept across Tibet in March 2008, but it also features writings about Tibetans being arrested, sentenced and persecuted. In my contribution to the volume [PDF] I wrote: “After half a century of mandatory brainwashing and education is not that the monasteries have all been destroyed, but that their memories have been erased or altered. Our duty now is to search for, recover and then amend our memories, and even to re-produce our history and reality.”

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: film, propaganda, Tibet history, Tibet protests
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A few times a year since 2002, Xu Duo, a 32-year-old migrant worker-turned-singer-songwriter, has staged shows with friends at construction sites around Beijing. The troupe released its first album Workers Are in the Same Family in September 2004, including Xu’s “City Life”, in which he sings:

“Through the finger sliced off by a machine like a falling leaf. Through the miners in the dark pit risking their life at any moment. Let all hypocrisy and injustice get out of the way.

“Vendors selling us the European lifestyle. Selling us lottery tickets and illusions like Super Girl. Selling us desires in fancy packages. Selling us workers like cheap and durable goods.”

© Priscilla Jiao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing, documentaries, film, migrant workers, rock music
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Three Chinese films have been withdrawn from this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival in protest of the inclusion of a documentary about Rebiya Kadeer — the leader of the World Uygur Congress.

The films — “Perfect Life,” “Petition” and “Cry Me a River,” — had been expected to be screened in the mid-August festival, according to the Age newspaper in Melbourne.

But in a letter to the festival, Jia Zhangke, producer of the film “Perfect Life” and whose company also produced “Cry Me a River,” said he decided to withdraw both movies to protest Kadeer’s attendance at the event.

“Petition,” a film directed by Zhao Liang, has also been withdrawn from the festival.

Jia said most of the families of those killed in the deadly July 5 riot in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, believe Kadeer’s World Uygur Congress was behind the violence.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Australia relations, film, Jia Zhangke, Rebiya Kadeer
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Sometimes called the most significant of the current generation of Chinese film directors, Jia Zhangke (b. 1970) enjoys the distinction of never having had some of his finest work commercially shown in his own country.

This would include the so-called “Hometown Trilogy,” here illuminatingly examined by Michael Berry in a new volume in the exemplary BFI Film Classics series. The three films compose Jia’s first feature-length productions: “Pickpocket” (aka “Xiao Wu”) was completed in 1997, “Platform” in 2000, and “Unknown Pleasures” in 2002.

The three, as Berry explains, form a trilogy not in the sense of any narrative continuity but in terms of their “shared aesthetic vision, social critique, and the common socio-geographic-historic terrain they traverse.”

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: film, film censorship, Jia Zhangke
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A little-known deputy film censor has been promoted to oversee China’s rapidly growing movie industry, sources inside the State Administration of Radio Film and Television told The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday.

On June 25, Zhang Pimin was promoted to vice-director of SARFT, where he formerly was deputy director of the Film Bureau responsible for helping to cut out too much onscreen sex and violence and for erasing messages perceived as hurtful to China and its ruling Communist Party.

A little-known bureaucrat, the 56-year-old Zhang took up a recently vacated seat next to SARFT vice director Zhao Shi, long the highest-ranking Chinese official to engage the Hollywood studios in public on the issues of piracy and market access affecting the movie industry worldwide.

“The responsibility for China’s film industry is shifting from Zhao to Zhang,” said Liu Chun, deputy director for international cooperation at the Film Bureau at SARFT.

Zhang took the vice director seat vacated after the recent retirement of Lei Yuanliang, who was not involved in the oversight of the film industry, Liu said. “Zhao and Zhang will share some of the responsibilities previously managed by Lei,” who reached the typical retirement age of 60 in December.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: film, film censorship, film industry, SARFT, Zhang Pimin
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THE death threat landed in Lu Chuan’s e-mail in-box the first week his film on the Nanjing massacre was released here in China.

Mr. Lu tried to recall the exact words as he sat one morning in the apartment of a French producer of the film, “Nanjing! Nanjing!” “ ‘You’re a traitor,’ ” he said, reciting the e-mail message. “ ‘I want to kill you.’ ”

The producer, Isabelle Glachant, shook her head. “It’s ‘I’ll dismember you,’ ” she said. “It’s not just ‘I’ll kill you.’ It’s ‘I’ll kill you by dismemberment.’ ”

Other threats soon followed, as a glance at the tens of thousands of comments on Mr. Lu’s blog shows. One person wished his parents slow and painful deaths. Another said he would cut off Mr. Lu’s penis.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: film, Lu Chuan, Nanking! Nanking!
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“When friends ask me to recommend some Chinese movies, I will always tell them to watch documentaries,” Beijing Film Academy professor Cui Weiping told Duowei News. “Even though the quality of some images seems rough, these documentaries possess a reality that mainstream movies lack.”

On October 25, 2008, the Fourth Reel China Documentary Biennial showcased three grand prize-winning documentaries chosen out of 33 competing films from New York: “Bing Ai,” “Though I Am Gone,” and “My Dear.”

Since 2006, the biennial event has moved the awards ceremony back to China in order to let these blacklisted documentary films that are banned from public showing return to their home country with accolades and capture the attention of the Chinese people. The awards ceremony for the Fourth Reel China Documentary Biennial will be held on November 5, 2008 at the Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art.

Hu Jie, who was blacklisted:
Hu Jie, a native from Nanjing, won one of the grand prizes at this year’s biennial for his 60-minute historical documentary, “Though I Am Gone.” He served in the army for 15 years, and then he graduated from the Department of Oil Paintings at the People’s Liberation Army Art Academy and worked as a Xinhua News Agency Reporter. After he resigned, he joined a group of people to take wedding photos and became a photographer for a living. His attitude towards life is no different from a normal person. However, what sets him apart is that he has filmed documentaries dealing with sensitive issues before, such as “Seeking Lin Zhao’s Soul,” which forced officials to blacklist him.

What kind of conditions existed in China when Hu Jie came out with his documentary? Hu Jie and Zhu Rikun, a Chinese documentary operations engineer also from New York, collectively tell a story: “One time, I was in Beijing filming a documentary event. At one point, I wanted to screen Hu Jie’s documentary, but because we could not expose the documentary ahead of time, I told him to secretly come to Beijing from Nanjing and patiently wait for my notification,” Zhu Rikun said.

“One day, as it was nearing midnight, I received a phone call from Zhu Rikun asking me where I was. I told him my approximate location, and he made me wait for his car on the street. Half an hour later, I was seated in his car, and after an hour’s drive he took me to a house located on the outskirts of the city. Inside the house, I saw the showing of my documentary.”

Because Hu Jie’s “Though I Am Gone” touches upon sensitive issues during the Cultural Revolution, it was banned in China. Hu Jie himself was blacklisted by the government. The Fourth Reel China Documentary Biennial’s evaluation of the above-mentioned film is as follows: “The noble temperament and the questioning nature of the work are like a whip, flogging the sleeping reality. The film’s clean and simple black and white colors and the cross-editing of photography and videography — the visual elements became a witness to prove and reveal evidence; all these elements leave an extraordinarily intense and lasting impression on viewers, and the kind of suffering and repressed emotion continues through to the end of the film.”

Before the film’s screening, Hu Jie told Duowei reporters, “Although my documentary cannot be released domestically in China and thus is unable to generate income, I am still very content when I see it being duplicated and sold on the black market because in this way, I can still spread my work in China.”

Increasing numbers of documentary filmmakers and activities
Due to the simplified and ubiquitous digital recording technology, no one knows exactly how many people in China are shooting documentaries as more ambitiously vocal Chinese have participated in the movement to record China. Beijing Film Academy professor Hao Jian believes that “as the numbers of people increase, the people within our field of vision are in the hundreds.”

During the Third Bienniel in 2006, Chinese peasants filmed simple, black-and-white silent documentaries to help the European Union carry out the “Plans to Spread the Image of the Autonomy of Chinese Villagers.” In the midst of those plans, the European Union subsidized ten Chinese peasants and trained them to shoot documentaries on grassroots democracy.

Commenting on the way independent Chinese documentaries have become an alternative livelihood for the people, the Beijing Broadcasting Institute professor Cui Weiping said to Duowei: “Many people help other people shoot films for advertisements, and most people engage in the advertising industry. Some people, after shooting a commercial for five months and earning 100,000 RMB in profit, will invest this money in documentaries.”

For the documentary filmmakers, the greatest problem isn’t making a living, but having their documentaries censored and unable to enter the market through normal distribution channels. Professor Hao Jian said to Duowei: “The making of independent documentaries in China isn’t a normal occupation and lacks normal commercial activity. Because feature movies are able to gain commercial value through the participation of film festivals, and at the same time documentary film makers are crammed in a run-down room of a rented building, filmmakers of feature films usually have better living conditions. The government’s criticism of independent documentaries is usually negative, and thus the government will not let them enter the market.”

At the moment, support for Chinese independent documentaries comes from the common people. Some celebrities and civil organizations have provided the funds to establish some documentary film festivals such as the Chinese Independent Film Festival in Nanjing, the Clouds South Documentary Festival, the Chinese Documentary Exchange Week at the Songzhuang Art Museum, the Beijing Independent Film Forum and Chinese Independent Documentary Film Festival. In the fall of 2006, Li Xianting set up the Li Xianting Fund at the Song manor to collect 34 independent Chinese documentaries. The top donor was Fang Lijun who gave 100,000 RMB. Professor Cui Weiping told Duowei, “Chinese officials don’t care much for these. However, occasionally, they will look into some films and blacklist the people they don’t like. Hu Jie was blacklisted in this way.”

Beijing Film Academy professor Hao Jian said, “In China, the propaganda films that Zhang Yimou has shot for the Beijing Olympics and Shanghai World Exposition have been categorized as documentaries. The documentaries conserved by the government officials are known to possess Zhang Yimou’s style. I used to be the art director or supervisor of some of these films, but I am sure I am not the one who has directed such a style into these films.”

Hao Jian used three key words to link the independent Chinese documentaries: reality, ethics, and language. He especially takes notice of the language of the documentaries and discovers that there is a huge disparity between the independent documentaries and CCTV aesthetics: “Because of my background in mainland China, when I am watching independent documentaries, I always wonder, ‘Will the CCTV censorship officials let these documentaries pass?’” Hao Jian said, “In comparison with the CCTV aesthetics, not only do independent documentaries have the drive and courage to confront reality, they also have vigor and conciseness in language.”

Hao Jian said to Duowei, “Independent documentaries have presented reality. Its original and concise language is even more powerful than the language in Shen Shaomin’s “I am Chinese” in its representation of the artistic style in the contemporary age.” Hao Jian believes that in China, a new documentary code of ethics is being created: “That is, ‘It’s okay. You can process the footage, but you must tell the audience what you did.”

- See also:
* Hu Jie’s full documentary “Though I Am Gone” via YouTube
* A profile of Hu Jie from journalist Zhao Minglei’s blog
* An excerpt from Out of Mao’s Shadow, by Philip Pan, which tells the story of Hu Jie’s efforts to document Lin Zhao’s life and death (Read CDT’s interview with Pan about the book.)

Hu Jie’s documentary about Lin Zhao can be seen in full on YouTube.
Part 1/11:

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Read the rest of Chinese Documentaries Show Realities Missing from Chinese Films (20 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: art censorship, Cui Weiping, documentaries, film, film censorship, Hu Jie
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Screening a Chinese-made film internationally without a permit guarantees a ban for the film’s theatrical release in China and could result in sanctions for its producers and director.

However, a banned film in China can garner international attention. The article continues:

Lou Ye’s 2006 “Summer Palace” screened at the Festival de Cannes as an official competition entry before Chinese censors approved it, resulting in a five-year ban for Lou from making films in China. However, it was picked up by U.S. and French distributors. The film’s producer, Fang Li, subsequently produced “Lost in Beijing,” which also was banned in China after a theatrical run.

International buyers agree that these controversies attract attention. “It creates a buzz for the film. I would certainly try to look at a film that is banned,” said Jerome Bliah, president of International Films Distribution Consultants.

On the other hand, Feng Xiaogang’s film “Assembly” won several awards at the Pyongyang International Film Festival in North Korea.  See also the entire story, “Assembly” wins highest prize at Pyongyang int’l film festival” by Xinhua News Agency.

© jleung for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: art censorship, film, Tsui Hark
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