Take Up Your Camera and Just Do It

Peace Anyiam-Fiberesima, Khaled el Hagar, Onir and Jia Zhangke, the successful filmmakers from Nigeria, Egypt, India and China, share their experiences in producing local content in an international market. Moderated by film journalist Vincenzo Bugno and prolific producer Jacques Bidou, panelists talked about their national cinema situations, the challenges they face and the solutions they opt for.

The panel opened with a brief introduction about the structure of the film industry in each panelist’s country. Indian director Onir explains that although Bollywood film has a huge market and makes people think it is the representation of Indian culture, the reality is that India also produces a profusion of other kinds of films. Jia Zhangke says that Chinese people started making independent films from 1990 onwards. By now it has produced over one hundred independent films and most are funded by private companies or international co-productions. Peace Anyiam Fiberesima sees two kinds of films being produced in her country, one made for the audience and the other made for festivals.

Local censorship in film is a key challenge for many directors who want to achieve freedom of expression. Khaled el Hagar’s first film reached the public mainly via DVD. For this Egyptian director, walking abroad means freedom because people have to be confronted with inner censorship. In Nigeria, religion is sensitive where filmmakingis concerned. And people can’t make a film about a sensitive topic. “People have to get his script to be approved. Every film must be censored. We have had a long running battle with censorship,” says Peace Anyiam-Fiberesima.

Speaking of censorship, Jia Zhangke has more to say. His first three movies are all censored in China, and can be seen only on pirated DVDs. “Our censors come from different areas of the public, like departments of traffic, public security, women, children… We don’t have a real censorship system. Whether a film can be passed or not randomly relies on people rather than a system.” For Jia Zhangke, the negative effect of the censorship is that it really gnaws away at people’s minds and restricts their imagination very much. Onir regards the challenge as coming from distributors rather than censors. He maintains that sometimes even a film is approved by censors but still cannot find a distributor to release it.

Though locked in a difficult local situation, they all want their films to reach into an international market. Peace Anyiam Fiberesima admits the importance of culture as export. She thinks that it is a way of taking back their culture and their identity. Jia Zhangke also likes his films traveling around the world. He believes that in a globalising world people can share something more common from a film than usual.

The acclaimed producer Jacques Bidou suggests that young people should find producers that suit you but not against you. Because the process of directing a film is full of difficulties, it may dampen young people’s enthusiasm for filmmaking. Jia Zhangke’s statements encourage people to go on. “The best way is just to shoot your film and forget about all the problems. Producing more and more is the only way to fight back.” His simple advice won appreciative applause from talents.

Alice Wang

© Berlinale Talent Campus 2007