MCLC: Zhang Xianmin on indie film

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Kevin B Lee <kevin at dgeneratefilms.com>
Subject: Zhang Xianmin on indie film
***********************************************************

Source: dGenerate Films:
http://dgeneratefilms.com/uncategorized/leading-chinese-indie-film-figure-s
hares-a-sobering-outlook#more-10607

Leading Chinese indie film figure shares a sobering outlook
By Maya E. Rudolph

Zhang Xianmin, seminal figure of Chinese independent film, is getting
ready to pass the torch. On a rare visit to New York City, Zhang spoke
at Brooklyn’s Ran Tea House about the conditions that shaped Chinese
independent cinema since its earliest days and the uncertain climb
that lies ahead. One of the founders of the China Independent Film
Festival in Nanjing and a preeminent driving force in the indie film
scene since the 1990s, Zhang provided an account of the challenges
facing CIFF, involving technology, artistry, and strategies for
survival. Since 2003, CIFF has served as a rare bastion of discourse
and growth for independent cinema in China, but recent government
pressure has pushed the festival into a new phase. Skies—and
screens—may be dark, but the forecast according to Zhang is one of
decentralization of media and space, and a surge of fresh energy from
a new generation of programmers and critics.

As one of the founding fathers of CIFF, producer of such films as
Raised from Dust, Fujian Blue and Old Dog, a professor at Beijing Film
Academy, actor, scholar, and critic, Zhang’s experience is a unique
nexus of erudition and creativity. The event at Ran Tea House came off
the heels of his participation in a conference at NYU entitled “Media
& Asian Globalization: China and India, 1977-Present,” organized by
Arvind Rajagopal of NYU’s Media, Culture, and Communication Department
and Zhang Zhen of NYU’s Cinema Studies. Speaking alongside scholars of
the Chinese Cinema community such as Chris Berry, Zhang engaged the
room in a paperless presentation—preferring to riff, improvise, and
tell the story of CIFF in his own vernacular.  “He didn’t need to
refer to a paper,” said Zhou Xin, who organized the Ran Tea House
event and is a masters student in NYU Cinema Studies, “it was
fascinating.”

At his Ran Tea House lecture, Zhang remarked that CIFF owed much to
the relatively brief but dense period of activity of indie film
communities in China. Zhang described the roots of the indie film
movement from the late 1980s when the demise of a poetry and
literature movement among Chinese underground intellectuals gave birth
to the first inklings of a film community. Working around their jobs
at CCTV, burgeoning filmmakers such as Wu Wengguang, Wang Guangli and
Shi Jian began to co-opt CCTV cameras and editing equipment for their
own use, effectively initiating Chinese independent cinema as we know
it today. Zhang spoke of the isolation experienced by filmmakers in
those days, cut off from society and working at night, sometimes in
remote locations, to bring untold stories to light.

According to Zhang, the first attempts to screen independent
documentaries in China are not unlike the stutter steps of any
maverick artist’s early career. There were quixotic attempts to
promote work shunted by authorities (i.e. Shi Jian’s unsuccessful
proposal to screen documentaries at Beijing’s Communications
University in the early 90s) and engagements with international
artists that effectively marginalized local filmmakers (In 1997,
Frederick Wiseman was able to organize a documentary screening series
in Beijing, but no Chinese works were included.). But by the 2000s,
the fate of indie film in China was forever changed by DVD piracy and
the subsequent widespread proliferation of international cinema in the
country. The internet became a platform for discussion and promotion
of films, while the expansion of digital cinema technology and a
fast-growing university culture ushered in a “new situation of image
creation.” In 2003, CIFF was founded as a discussion forum for
filmmakers and grew over the course of nearly a decade to reach
audiences of over 20,000 people and a worldwide reputation as a
stronghold of independent voices in Chinese cinema. The story of CIFF
is one of growth and promise, but it has also become a battleground in
recent years—a place where cinema has come head-to-head with
restrictions on “collective gathering” and ominous warnings from
authorities.

Chinese indie film has come a long way from surreptitious CCTV editing
sessions, but today it seems to find itself in a moment of crisis.
Escalated government pressure and censure of events like CIFF, the
Beijing Independent Film Festival, and the works of individual
filmmakers like Ying Liang have placed creators and critics in a
debilitated position.  “Many curators and filmmakers are a little
tired,” Zhang admitted.  Producer and curator Zhu Rikun wrote in
October 2012, “Although it seems that more people are interested in
the country’s independent films and the critical reception is
positive, they are misguided – the current state of independent cinema
in China is far from ideal.” Both Zhu and Zhang express frustrations
with self-censorship, the appropriation of the “independent” brand by
those hoping to turn controversy into profit, and the increasingly
sinister murkiness of risk and reward in the film community. “The
crowd is the issue,” Zhang said, but also spoke of a messy confluence
of “bullshitting businessmen” financing projects without integrity and
distracting audiences from truly audacious filmmaking.

Still, there is a new wave afoot. Zhang speaks of the future of CIFF
in terms of the audience and discussed a network of restructured
festivals—with films distributed online and in smaller gatherings—and
galvanizing a younger generation of curators and filmmakers to write
the next chapter and seek future possibilities. Zhang emphasizes the
importance of bolstering of domestic festivals for Chinese film
communities and cultivating a strong domestic film community without
overreliance on international festivals. “An international festival is
like an exotic restaurant,” said Zhang, laying down his self-described
“food metaphor,” “we need to learn to cook at home, to develop our own
‘food identity.’ We can’t just eat out at restaurants all the time. We
need to cook for our own family.”

The future of Chinese indie cinema—and of Zhang’s involvement
therein—may be fraught with challenges, but Zhang is looking ever
forward, opening the question to a crowd of creative heirs. “Me and my
colleagues are old fashioned and cinema was re-created after 2000,”
Zhang told the audience at Ran. “We have now to ask ourselves now if
the audience is the main purpose or not.” Responding to a question of
future initiatives posed by event co-organizer Lesley Yiping Qin,
Zhang addressed Qin, Zhou, and the young crowd of film students and
aspiring film professionals gathered to hear him speak. “You will find
the answer,” Zhang affirmed, “Not me. You will find the answer.”