The 7th China Independent Film Festival in Nanjing

The 7th China Independent Film Festival in Nanjing

by CHRISTEN CORNELL

Tomorrow is Day One of The China Independent Film Festival (CIFF), running from 21-25 October across eight university campuses in Nanjing. This is the festival’s seventh year and based on recent years’ attendance about 12,000 people are expected to attend.

As usual, this year’s CIFF program includes drama and documentary, along with art films and archival projects that would rarely (if ever) be shown in mainstream venues. These films have all been made outside the commercial film system and are all screened in the CIFF free of charge.

I managed to track down Festival President, Professor Zhang Xianmin, just days before the opening of CIFF. Zhang believes we are living in a historic time for Chinese independent cinema ? one that will probably be remembered as its greatest moment. Don't you wish you were at the festival? Read on for an insight if you're not.

Christen Cornell: You just got back from Pusan International Film Festival in Korea. How was that?

Zhang Xianmin: Pusan is by the sea so the festival is always very nice, quite comfortable. There were lots of screenings, lots of events. I think Pusan is perhaps the best organised of all the Asian film festivals, although the Hong Kong International Film Festival is perhaps better for the market side of things.

CC: How does Pusan compare with your film festival, The China Independent Film Festival (CIFF)?

ZXM: They’re totally different. Pusan is almost a dinosaur, in terms of its size, and it’s also very international so although it does include an Asian element its program is drawn from the whole world. CIFF is still very small. It is a national event but it looks a bit more like a local event.

CC: Perhaps we should go back and introduce the CIFF festival for readers. It’s held at Nanjing University and is in its seventh year …

ZXM: Yes, it’s based at Nanjing University but is held in collaboration with eight different universities in the area, so we show the films on a number of different campuses. The festival is growing steadily each year. The audience is made up of mostly students and professional visitors. At this point about 12,000 people come each year.

CC: 12,000! Not 1,200 … you mean 12,000?

ZXM: Yes, 12,000, if you added up the audience numbers for all the screenings. Most of them I would say would be students. I don’t know exactly but I think more than 50% of the audience is from the university itself or the universities around it. Then there are people from the media ? people representing different magazines, television stations, and specialty websites ? and every year we get a few visitors from the film industry as well.

CC: I’ve seen on your website that in previous years you’ve held training programs for young film critics, youth film nights. You seem to have a focus on youth and the development of critical or filmmaking cinema skills.

ZXM: I think that independent cinema is by nature a cinema quite close to young people. So for example this year, out of the ten feature films in our competition, five are made by first-time directors. That wasn’t intentional, we weren’t trying to include debut films, it just turned out that based on the entries that was the result of our pre-selection team. But this youth involvement is not necessarily specific to Chinese independent cinema ? it’s a characteristic of independent cinema everywhere.

CC: I suppose it’s easier to start independently rather than try to crack the commercial scene with all its industry protocols.

ZXM: I’m sure there are explanations for why young people are attracted to independent cinema, but I don’t think I’m the proper person to interpret these things. I can say though that there are more and more people who want to create audio-visual works, whether or not they consider them ‘cinema’. For many in our festival, cinema is only part of the concept or the possibility of audio-visual creation ? some even reject the idea.

CC: What might they consider their audio-visual works to be, if not cinema?

ZXM: They might consider them as a kind of art, for example; or maybe as a kind of social work; or even a kind of archival work. The filmmaker has the right to do this, I think, and say their work is not a documentary; however I would also ask him then, Why do you submit your work in film festivals? That puts it in a cinema context. Perhaps it’s really just a question the filmmaker has to ask himself, Is my work cinema? We just try to create a platform for these young creators to find an audience, even if it’s non-commercial and the audience is not a paying one.

CC: Does CIFF also introduce young filmmakers to sources of funding?

ZXM: There is a kind of headhunting that goes on at the festival. Every year there are people from the film industry who attend our event, looking for talent. Sometimes they try to contact me beforehand, sometimes they just pick up the information on the Internet and they come by themselves without getting in touch.

I’m not against it. If we offer a platform it’s for everyone. So these people can come and talk freely to the directors of interest to them. And for the funding guys it’s the same. We just try to minimise our involvement. If they want to make an official announcement of their funding programs we prefer to stay out of it, but they can always come by themselves and try to talk to the directors in the cafes. It’s up to them.

CC: You give awards at the festival as well, don’t you? What are the categories?

ZXM: This year we have a category of best movie, a Jury Prize, and a prize for the first movie. We’ve also decided we’ll have a nomination of the ten best documentaries of the year.

CC: Ten nominations! That sounds like a lot for one year. How many independent documentaries do you think would be made a year in China?

ZXM: I’d say there’s be over sixty completed each year ? that’s feature documentaries, so over sixty minutes long. It won’t be like this in future though. I think we probably at the best moment of Chinese independent cinema right now, even if it is still very strictly controlled by the government.

CC: Is that because it’s a period of great social change, do you think?

ZXM: That’s one of the reasons. Another is actually the control of the press. A lot of people are currently choosing audio-visual creation as a means of expression ? not for personal expression but for social expression. It’s a kind of popular media, and these creators find it a very direct way to communicate. So control of the press is another reason for the existence of so many independent movies.

Another reason people choose to make independent cinema is that the gap between commercial and independent cinema in China is so large, so visible, and there are so few possibilities of reconciliation, that people are almost pushed over to the independent side. There isn’t really a middle ground.

That’s perhaps why I’m saying that now is the best moment for independent cinema. But strangely, it’s kind of an effect of negative circumstances ? of the filmmakers’ despair at both Chinese commercial cinema but also the general social situation. These people aren’t only motivated by a love of cinema. For many it’s quite a different motivation ? they might just feel the need to say something about society.

CC: Before we go, could you give me us some recommendations? If someone had time to see three films at this year’s CIFF, what would be your three hot tips?

ZXM: Hm, let me think ... I would recommend the animation feature by Zhao Qin, Liu Jian, and Xu Hong [呆眼看人呆]. Then there's a black and white feature called My Father My River [河流和我的父亲], by Li Luo. And in documentary I think Tape [胶带] by Li Ning is quite special.