MCLC: Beijing Independent Film Fest shut down (4,5)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Kevin Carrico <kjc83 at cornell.edu>
Subject: Beijing Independent Film Fest shut down (4)
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I would not be surprised if the target was indeed Hu Jie’s 胡杰 film 星火,
although of course it's impossible to seek anything approaching
rationality to explain such irrational behavior on the part of the
authorities.

星火 follows up on Hu Jie's work in "Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul" by
tracing the story of an unofficial journal in the 1960s named 星火 and the
various "rightists" involved in the journal. Among the targets of the
journal's critiques was the devastation of the Great Leap Forward, which
most of us now know turned out to be not so "great." Many of the scholars
involved received heavy sentences, and Lin Zhao, among them, was famously
executed early in the Cultural Revolution.

The film can be viewed here (Chinese subtitles only):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex94VNyvjdM

Kevin Carrico

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From: Scott Savitt <scottsavitt at gmail.com>
Subject: Beijing Independent Film Fest shut down (5)

Thank you Scott for your eyewitness account. I can't help recounting that
25 years ago, in February 1989, I went through something similar with Li
Xianting when his Avant-Garde Art Exhibition at the Beijing Art Museum was
shut down by the police one hour after opening. Plus ça change....

Scott Savitt