MCLC: Beijing Independent Film Fest shut down (2, 3)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Scott Myers <smyers at uchicago.edu>
Subject: Beijing Independent Film Fest shut down (2)
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Dear all,

What follows is my account of what took place at and around the Li
Xianting Film Fund in Songzhuang on August 23rd, 2014, the (cancelled)
opening day of the Beijing Independent Film Festival. I was pretty much at
the epicenter of events and was able to see what was happening in close
detail.

I arrived at 1:30 pm, an hour and a half before the opening ceremony was
set to begin at 3:00. Wang Hongwei 王宏伟 and Fan Rong 范荣 had been
arrested 
and released the day before, and the police had made it clear that the
Festival was not moving forward. According to information Li Xianting
released on Weibo in the days leading up to the cancellation, the police
had at first agreed to allow the Festival to be held in Yanjiao, Hebei
province, but this promise was later rescinded. While I was on the bus to
Songzhuang from Beijing, a friend who lives and works inside the Film
Fund, a paper cut artist who is also the compound gatekeeper and cook,
texted me to say "We’re completely encircled. Everyone has left. The
electricity has been cut." By "everyone", he meant Festival supporters
gathered outside.

When I arrived at the Film Fund at 1:30 pm with two Chinese friends, there
was a group of ten or more men blocking the front gate of the compound.
They immediately told us we could not enter. The gate was shut and had a
notice posted on it. There were no other Fest supporters in front of the
Film Fund at this time, undoubtedly because no one was allowed to linger
there. There were, however, small groups of twos and threes walking around
the area. My two friends and I left and then returned at around 2:30.
When we came back, there was a crowd of about 50 people two blocks from
the Film Fund. Most were Chinese; five or so were journalists from Die
Zeit and Le Monde. Across the street from us were the same men we had seen
outside the Film Fund front gate earlier. There were few if any uniformed
Public Security Bureau officers present. There were, however, PSB cars
parked nearby, several with officers inside with the windows shut (where
it was nice and air conditioned, Fest supporters commented sardonically).

The vast majority of the muscle flexed that day was by local men who had
allegedly been paid 100-200 yuan per day to be the goons who would eject
Fest supporters from the area. Some, it seems, were village committee
members. There was essentially a stand-off between the two sides that
lasted for most of the day. The men alternated between staring us down
from across the street and coming over and trying to herd us away while
speaking in loud, macho voices. Fest supporters ignored them at best, and
in many cases simply laughed at them. There were also words exchanged
between the groups: mainly, the men saying they were just “regular people”
老百姓 and the crowd responding that they, too, were “regular people.” When
the men said that they were just villagers (村民 / 村里的人), some of the
Songzhuang resident artists responded that they, too, were villagers.

During this period of time from around 2:30 to 4:00, the men succeeded in
making people shift position a little bit, but they were not able to make
us disperse. By around 4:00, however, the men became sufficiently
aggressive that they succeeded in dispersing the crowd, which immediately
reassembled on the next block, which was in fact closer to LXTFF.

At this point it was around 4:00 pm, and we were on the corner one block
away from the Film Fund (it's a village, so the scale is much smaller than
the word "block" implies). The men became extremely aggressive at this
point. One fest supporter who was taking pictures had his phone grabbed.
The men had been threatening people not to take pictures the entire time
(earlier, they had grabbed a few phones, but had returned them). There was
a constant dance going on around the issue of picture taking and filming:
threats followed by gestures of compliance. At one point when one of the
men confiscated a Fest supporter's phone, the crowd verbally confronted
him, demanding that he give it back. I did not see whether or not he
returned it, but at this point several of the men came toward the crowd
aggressively. One of them pushed director Geng Jun 耿军 and the crowd
responded with strong verbal condemnation. It was this push that triggered
a physical altercation between the two groups. Geng Jun was the center of
this altercation, but others stepped in to try to break things up and/or
help Geng resist the pushing. I cannot agree with reports that Geng Jun
was “beaten." I was no more than five feet from the incident and saw no
blows exchanged, certainly not to the face. There was, however, a good
deal of pushing, and a picture posted on social media later showed Geng
Jun pushed almost to the ground. A few people sustained minor injuries
such as scratches.

At 4:15, the crowd moved to yet another corner, strategically positioning
itself as close to the LXTFF compound as it could. At this point I started
noticing many people wearing white t-shirts with the large character 停
(which can be interpreted as “stop” as well as “cancelled”); on the back
of the t-shirts was written 11th Beijing Independent Film Festival. These
shirts had been made the night before when news of the cancellation spread.

At around 4:30 I learned more about who was inside the compound. Li
Xianting himself had been inside along with several people from the
Songzhuang Art Museum. Surely also were several PSB. For a while an
officer was installed on a compound balcony filming the crowd.

Those of us who are friends with the gatekeeper were greatly worried about
him. In his 50s and living alone in a small courtyard room adjacent to the
main building of the Film Fund, he was told that if he left the compound
(where he lives) he would not be able to re-enter. It was very hot that
day and he was in his small room without air conditioning; the
temperatures of refrigerators would soon be rising. We called him to ask
if he needed us to bring him food, and he said he was fine. The day after
the incident (8/24) I texted him to ask about the electricity, and he said
it’s still off. My mind is somewhat put to rest knowing he has friends in
Songzhuang who have offered a place for him to stay if he needs to leave.
More troubling are the indications that he might not be allowed to leave
at all.

The crowd began dispersing on its own around 5:00 pm. The men warned us
that “it will be more dangerous for you after 6:00.”

Most of the group when to a nearby restaurant to eat, process and
strategize. As early as 3:30 I had heard reports that the authorities were
searching the compound, going through films and computers. Around 6:00 pm
it was confirmed (to me, at least) that they had seized computers, papers,
and, according to Li Xianting’s Weibo post, “10 years’ worth of films.”
There are backup copies of previous years’ films that are (relatively)
safely housed away from the compound, but from what I understand there
were no copies of this year’s films. Li Xianting and Wang Hongwei were
taken to the police station. Unlike the previous day, this was not an
“official” arrest, but questioning meant to intimidate. At the station Li
Xianting and Wang Hongwei were questioned for six hours and made to fill
out paperwork (笔录) concerning what had happened. Finally they were
released.

From what I understand, the authorities particularly targeted two films at
this year’s fest. No one I spoke to was able to confirm what they were,
but one person said he strongly suspected that one of the films was Hu
Jie’s 胡杰 film Park 星火。

After dinner, some of the group wanted to go on with the purpose of the
Film Festival: to watch movies. Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Fei Pang 黄飞鹏,
whose film An Odd Fish 池之鱼 was the opening film, was present. Wong,
myself, and two others drove to Wong’s hotel in Songzhuang, where he
retrieved the DVD. We then went to the home of a young filmmaker who lives
not more than a 10 minute walk from the Film Fund. At 11:00 pm, 15 of us
watched the opening film of 11th Fest in her home-work space. The viewing
was followed by applause, champagne, and a good deal of conversation and
reflection on what had happened. People began to go home at around 1:30
am.  

By all accounts, the repression of this year’s Independent Film Fest was
much worse than in years past. There was a real concern among people I
spoke with that the continued survival not only of the Festival, but of
the Li Xianting Film Fund itself, is at serious risk.

Scott E. Myers
University of Chicago

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From: Bert Scruggs <bertscruggs at mac.com>
Subject: Beijing Independent Film Fest shut down (3)

Below is the result of tapping/clicking on the link to LiXianting's Weixin
account. I cannot help but wonder who reported the content and wonder who
is really running Weixin:

此内容被多人举报，相关的内容无法进行查看。

Best,

Bert Scruggs