Every two years, the best Chinese documentary filmmakers travel to NYU for the Reel China @NYU Documentary Film Festival.
Throughout its 10 years, the festival, which is hosted by the Department of Cinema Studies in conjunction with the Center for Religion and Media at NYU, has featured more than 100 documentary films by aspiring and established Chinese filmmakers.
The documentaries typically depict social issues in China, especially issues the government has refused to address. This year, the festival has expanded to include fiction films as well.
“Hosting the festival now for the sixth time, we have seen so many crossovers from documentaries to fictional films,” said Zhang Zhen, co-curator of the festival and professor in the Cinema Studies department at the Tisch School of the Arts. “We like the hybridization.”
Ping Jie Zhang, a Chinese filmmaker, started Reel China in 2002. After meeting Zhang in 2004, the two worked together
to make the second Reel China a university-sponsored event.
Two years later, Angela Zito, co-director of the Center for Religion and Media in the Department of Anthropology, joined the team. Though she and Zhang invited the festival’s featured Chinese filmmakers to attend the event, it was not until 2008 that the filmmakers were able to be present during their film screenings because it was difficult for them to obtain U.S. visas.
“We are so grateful that the artists can be here in person because we can now conduct panel discussions and question and answer
sessions with them,” Zito said.
Films presented in this year’s festival, which began on Oct. 19, include “The Loves of Mr. An,” a heartwarming love story, “Five Plus Five,” which follows the lives of contemporary artists, and many more.
Filmmaker Wang Yunlong showed his documentary “To Justify Bu Qinfu” to Reel China’s attendees on Friday.
The film focuses on Wang’s mentor Bu Qinfu, who was wrongfully executed by the Chinese government because of her dissent in China’s Cultural Revolution. Wang hopes the film will expose the corruption of the Chinese government.
“I want the truth to be revealed,” Wang said. “After all, this is Reel China. We need to show what really happened.”
Tisch sophomore Ken Kriheli said the festival was eye-opening.
“It’s because it’s different that it was interesting,” Kriheli said. “I don’t get the opportunity to see Chinese films, so I’ll be coming back for the films
next week.”
Zhen and Zito attend film festivals in China each year to select the films for Reel China.
“When I choose films and act as a curator, it also enriches my teaching, and it opens windows for my students,” Zhang said.
Students from Zhang’s advanced honors seminar, Chinese Independent Documentaries, attend Reel China as a part of their course. The festival is free and open to the public, and audience members typically include NYU students and people from all over the metropolitan area.
Regardless of who comes to see the films, the purpose of the festival is to show social and cultural issues in China.
“These are alternative independent films that represent everyday life in China, and they show contemporary China in a different light,” Zhang said. “Once the films are shown, a ripple effect is created so that people are talking about issues that would otherwise not be talked about.”
Reel China will continue from Oct. 26 through Oct. 28 at the Michelson Theater at the Department of Cinema Studies, located on 721 Broadway, room 648.
A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Oct. 22 print edition. Jennifer Lu is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].