Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. China News .




SINO DAILY
China culture drive pushes out indie films
By Felicia SONMEZ
Beijing (AFP) May 1, 2015


A bevy of big-screen luminaries including Luc Besson and Arnold Schwarzenegger descended on Beijing recently for a star-studded international film festival, but art-house directors raised the alarm as authorities block a wave of independent cultural events.

Seeking to raise its "soft power" and standing on the world cultural stage, China is pushing its cinema industry with events such as last week's Beijing International Film Festival (BIFF).

State-run media trumpeted the competition's "A-list jury" -- chaired by Besson -- and said the event generated $2.2 billion in new contracts.

But the drive has been accompanied by a harsh crackdown on China's independent filmmakers, whose efforts to create works largely outside the state censorship system have been met with escalating political and financial pressure -- and even violence.

"The hardest thing is deducing where the line is," director and producer Vivian Qu said at a roundtable.

"Over the years, as the Chinese film market grew bigger and bigger, the words 'art-house' and 'independent' and 'underground' have seemed much more sensitive than before."

"I really don't know where the line is right now," she added. "It keeps moving."

The cinema clampdown is part of a broader stifling of civil society since President Xi Jinping took office two years ago, with the Communist Party targeting activists, human rights lawyers and journalists, as it seeks to prevent any challenge to its rule.

In Beijing alone, authorities have recently forced the cancellations of a wide range of independent events, including several music festivals due this weekend, an Earth Day celebration, a benefit for the Beijing LGBT Centre, and a craft beer fair that drew 8,000 people last year.

"Large gatherings are being cancelled left and right," its sponsors Great Leap Brewing noted.

- 'Quite naive' -

Authorities initially turned a blind eye -- or even tacitly supported -- independent cinema events in China, which go back more than a decade.

The China Independent Film Festival, one of the country's premier celebrations of art-house cinema, was first launched at a provincial library in the southwestern city of Kunming in 2003.

Participants were under the impression that it "was almost official", according to organiser Zhang Xianmin, a Beijing Film Academy professor.

"The beginning was quite naive, I would say," he said.

As the event became more professional, it came under increasing pressure. Held more recently in Nanjing, it was shut down in 2012 and reduced in size the following year. The 2014 festival was allowed to proceed, although organisers only minimally publicised the event in order to avoid government attention.

Zhang himself has suffered official harassment, he said, with authorities at times limiting his travel outside China, investigating his finances, and doing "everything you could imagine" to exert pressure on him to halt his activities.

Last year police shut down another prominent cinema forum, the Beijing Independent Film Festival, and detained two of its organisers.

Dozens of unidentified men claiming to be villagers stood guard outside the venue in a Beijing suburb, roughing up journalists and others who approached.

A separate, long-running documentary film festival was cancelled in 2011.

- 'Socialist core values' -

Authorities are ramping up state-backed cultural efforts at the same time as tightening control over the independent film sphere.

Xi last year urged artists to "embody socialist core values in a lively and vivid way" in their works, to "uphold Chinese spirit" and "rally Chinese strength", the official news agency Xinhua reported.

Actress Yang Lina, who has also directed several documentaries, said that "mainstream movies are the only possibility" on the BIFF programme. "I feel very strongly that that cinema has nothing to do with me," she added.

The State Council Information Office, the propaganda arm of China's cabinet, also unveiled a three-year deal in March under which The Discovery Channel will air an hour of Beijing-approved, China-themed programming each week, reaching 90 million viewers in 37 countries and territories.

Diao Yinan's contemporary noir "Black Coal, Thin Ice", which Qu produced, took home the Berlin Film Festival's prestigious Golden Bear last year.

But officials passed over the gritty cop thriller when it came to nominations for the best foreign film Oscar, instead submitting tamer Chinese-French co-production "The Nightingale".

"I wasn't surprised," said Qu. "Of course it's not their ideal film to represent the country."


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
China News from SinoDaily.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





SINO DAILY
'Landmark verdict' for abused China wife who faced death
Beijing (AFP) April 24, 2015
A Chinese court on Friday commuted the death sentence of a woman who killed her abusive husband, her lawyer told AFP, with a rights group labelling the move a "landmark verdict". The case of Li Yan, who in 2010 beat to death her husband - who had physically hurt her and three previous wives - has thrown the spotlight on domestic abuse, a largely taboo subject in China. Her case was sen ... read more


SINO DAILY
Iran seizes cargo ship in Strait of Hormuz

US keeps China, India on intellectual rights watch list

Obama, Abe say not opposed to China infrastructure bank

China opens bank card clearing sector to foreign firms

SINO DAILY
Silicon: An important element in rice production

Could smell hold the key to ending pesticide use

McDonald's supplier gets Beijing's biggest pollution fine: Xinhua

Dutch saltwater potatoes offer hope for world's hungry

SINO DAILY
Niger says 46 soldiers, 28 civilians killed in weekend Boko Haram attack

DR Congo grants amnesty to hundreds of M23 rebels

Niger says 2.5 million suffering food insecurity

Billion dollar ivory and gold trade fuelling DR Congo war: UN

SINO DAILY
Vehicle cost, lack of information hinder purchases of plug-in electric vehicles

San Luis Obispo adds another EV Charge Hub Site on SunTrail Route

Car makers to profit from China's booming used market

Toyota tops global automaker sales in Q1

SINO DAILY
Ukraine says to import nuclear fuel from France

Japan eyes nuclear for a fifth of electricity supply

Fire shuts down Taiwan nuclear power reactor

Rosatom Considers Tripling Iran's Nuclear Power Production

SINO DAILY
Russian hackers read Obama emails: report

Raytheon forming cyber-security JV; launches new products

New security services contract for USmax

US military not ready to wage digital attack: official

SINO DAILY
ASEAN warns sea reclamation 'may undermine peace'

US army walks cultural minefield training Ukraine troops

Beijing poised to take 'de facto control' of S. China Sea: Philippines

Nepal rejects Taiwan rescue team offer: minister

SINO DAILY
Germany's E.ON building wind reputation

World-first and new standard achieved in floating lidar as AXYS selects ZephIR 300

Molycorp to supply rare earths for use in Siemens wind turbines

Cornell deploys dual ZephIR lidars for more accurate turbulence study




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.