60 People, 60 Stories

Looking for audiences within

By Stephen Cremin (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-30 09:01

It has been an extraordinary decade for Chinese cinema.

In 2001, there were just 71 feature film productions, but they included the debuts of Zhang Yibai, Teng Huatao, Meng Qi, Lu Chuan and Cao Baoping. I was able to watch more than half of the year's production on VHS and it was the breakthrough year for me. The following year, there were the debut films of Chen Daming, Ma Liwen, Zhang Jiarui and Xu Jinglei. Anyway, it was an exciting start to the decade.

Since then, production has boomed to more than 400 films a year and there needs to be more venues to discover those films. The Shanghai International Film Festival finally seemed to integrate fully with the Chinese film industry this year, with the whole Beijing film industry coming down for the first time to promote their upcoming lineup of films. If the underfunded festival can keep improving, it can help drive the Chinese film industry forward.

China still lacks a professional organization that promotes its films internationally. The most visible Chinese producers traveling overseas specialize in independent cinema, but they are now making films for wider audiences, paralleling the move of practically every interesting "underground" director. Ultimately, filmmakers want their films to be seen by local audiences and they are becoming less dependent on the shallow victory of foreign festival awards.

I hope investors in China become much more adventurous. There are too many films by first-time directors that are forced to follow the Hong Kong model of sacrificing their shooting days and lighting budget for the salaries of mid-range stars. The South Korean model of fully supporting a debut director with a first class cinematographer, for example, is a better way forward. After all, Hong Kong cinema has failed to produce a new generation of directors and stars.

Stephen Cremin is a specialist on Asian cinema.