Mainland China and Taiwan Meet in New Film Festival
Written by Marcus Thursday, 25 June 2009 05:21
From Shanghaiist:
Thanks to the somewhat softened relationship between Taiwan and China, a new film festival opened up last week and will continue into late July. The Cross-Strait Exhibition - a very formal title indeed - marks the first time in history that mainland China and Taiwan are collaborating on a film promotion event. At the same time, new rules for subsidy within the Taiwanese movie industry have just been made official.
The purpose of The Cross-Strait Exhibition, which is held separately from the Taipei Film Festival running this week, is to encourage more film making exchanges between Taiwan and mainland China, especially in the areas of funding and talent.
The event takes place in four cities on both sides of the East China Sea, screening six Taiwanese films in mainland cities of Beijing and Tianjing between June 26 to July 3, followed by seven mainland productions in Taiwan's Taipei and Taichung, between July 17-23.
The festival - organized by Taiwan's Motion Picture Development Foundation (MPDF) and the mainland's China Film Foundation, both private organizations with some governmental backing - is said to give both Taiwan and China a good chance of looking and learning from each other. Ma Kuo-chun, project manager with the Chinese Cross-Strait Film Association in Taipei, is quoted on Reuters:
Some China films show modern life while some are shot way out in the countryside, so lots of angles and the Taiwan audience can get to know China better. But there's still no formal platform for showing films.
Last week, Chinese director Feng Xiaogang inaugurated the festival together with Shu Qi, Taiwan actress, recent Cannes jury member and Hong Kong-celebrity. As director and star of the opening movie, If You Are the One, (Fei Cheng Wu Rao), they strolled down the red carpet, not only as promoters of the comedy in question, but maybe also as symbols of bridging the gap between the old foes.
It has been said that this festival is to improve grass roots relations within the two movie industries. Still, one might wonder how much of grass root level movies we will see, since the industry´s governing body, the Government Information Office, has some quite harsh rules for subsidy and seems more interested in promoting mainstream box office successes.
Read the rest at Shanghaiist
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