Xie Fei: Knocking on the door of "going out" for Chinese films

【Approaching the Writers】

Guangming Daily reporter Han Yeting

Xie Fei recently photographed Guangming Daily reporter Han Yeting / Guangming pictures

At the age of 79, he is the son of Xie Jueya, one of the "Five Elders of Yan'an", and also the leader of the fourth generation of directors, directing and shooting "Our Field", "Xiangnu Xiaoxiao", "Ben Ming Nian", "Fragrant Soul Girl", "Black Horse", "Yeshe Zhuoma" and other well-known excellent works at home and abroad, and has won many international awards such as the "Golden Panda Award" of the Montpolier Film Festival in France, the "Silver Bear Award" for outstanding personal achievements at the Berlin International Film Festival, and the "Golden Bear Award" for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival.

In October this year, at the 5th Pingyao International Film Festival, Xie Fei, the son of Xie Jueya, one of the "Five Elders of Yan'an" and the leader of the fourth generation of directors, was awarded the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon East-West Exchange Contribution Honor". Subsequently, from November 12 to 21, a retrospective exhibition of Xie Fei's film works, hosted by Smart Cinema and others, was held in the United States and Canada.

The 79-year-old director, although he has only made 9 films, is an important figure in spreading Chinese film culture to the world. Among the new Chinese film directors, his works not only entered the First American Cinema Line for distribution and screening, but also won a number of international film awards, such as "XiangNu XiaoXiao" won the "Golden Panda Award" at the Montpoglier Film Festival in France, "The Year of Life" won the "Silver Bear Award" for Outstanding Personal Achievement at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival, "Fragrant Soul Girl" won the "Golden Bear Award" for Best Film at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, and "Black Horse" won the Best Director Award and Best Music Award at the 19th Montreal Film Festival.

After graduating from the directing department of the Beijing Film Academy in 1965, Xie Fei stayed on to teach at the school, but he did not confine himself to the "pedantic school" in the ivory tower. For decades, while teaching, he also actively participated in Chinese and foreign film cultural exchange activities, opening a door for Chinese films to "go out", many of which are little known. One winter afternoon, Xie Fei told reporters the stories in his office at the Beijing Film Academy.

In May 1987, Xie Fei carried two iron boxes to the Cannes Film Festival in France. The box contains the film from the movie "Xiangnu Xiaoxiao". The film participated in the biggest screening of the film festival. What people did not expect was that the movie was on display, and the audience suddenly burst into laughter. In the movie, the hero and heroine of the previous shot just started to fall in love, and the heroine of the next shot is pregnant. It turned out that the projectionist saw the "6" in the sixth film as "9", skipping a lot of content in the middle. Although "XiangNu Xiaoxiao" did not enter the main competition unit, it attracted the interest of an American publisher. He wanted to release the film in the United States and invited Xie Fei to the United States to promote the film. On March 4, 1988, "Xiangnu Xiaoxiao" was released in American theaters. The propaganda poster read: "The first film from the People's Republic of China to be released and screened in the United States." Later, the American publisher released Xie Fei's "Black Horse."]

That trip to Cannes made Xie Fei realize that under the situation that Hollywood monopolizes the world film market, Chinese films "going out" can adopt the strategy of "cultural exchanges to open the way, followed by commercial distribution". After "Xiangnu Xiaoxiao", many Chinese films such as "Red Sorghum", "Big Red Lantern Hanging High", "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit", "Farewell to the Overlord" and so on, basically follow the common path of "first winning awards at international film festivals, and then distributing and screening abroad".

In Xie Fei's view, in addition to platforms such as international film festivals, foreign university film classes and teaching materials can become a bridge for Chinese films to "go global".

A few years ago, lecturing at a university in Brazil, Xie Fei asked the students what Chinese filmmakers and works they knew. What surprised him was that the students actually knew About Jia Zhangke's movies "Xiao Wu" and "Platform". It turned out that one of the students' teachers had filmed a documentary called "Fenyang Boy Jia Zhangke" with director Walter Cyrus, and also went to Jia Zhangke's hometown to interview Jia Zhangke's family, friends, and long-term actors. After returning to China, the teacher taught the students a class specializing in Jia Zhangke's films.

Xie Fei had a similar experience. Once, he was invited to give a lecture at the University of California, where he gave a detailed introduction to "Xiangnu Xiaoxiao" for the students. From characters to stories, from costumes to props, from the customs and habits of Xiangxi to the child bride system in old China, Xie Fei took "Xiangnu Xiaoxiao" as the entry point to comprehensively introduce China's social life and culture. The University of California recorded Xie Fei's lecture on video, and one of the professors said, "This is a very good teaching material for students to educate students about Chinese culture."

In Xie Fei's view, compared with entering the theater and being directly watched by foreign audiences, Chinese films entering the classrooms and teaching materials of foreign students may seem less lively, but they can play a sustained role. The teacher influences the student, and the student influences his family and friends, and the generation will subtly promote the spread of Chinese culture around the world. It is precisely with such a sense of communication that in the past two or three decades, Xie Fei has taken his own films wherever he goes, and uses his own films as an example to talk about Chinese culture wherever he goes.

In order to facilitate film screening and communication, as early as the mid-1990s, Xie Fei digitally repaired his own films at his own expense and signed a use agreement with the film copyright owner. Facts have proved that Xie Fei's vision is very advanced. It only cost 50,000 yuan to repair a movie, but now it takes at least 300,000 yuan, and if it is repaired to a 4K version, it costs 700,000 yuan. With a digital version and a license to use the film, Xie Fei was able to screen his film at any time at various film cultural exchange activities. Not only that, he also authorized some online platforms to conduct free public welfare screenings.

Xie Fei said that classic film and television works that embody Chinese culture are an important carrier for the spread of Chinese culture to the outside world. But now an embarrassing reality is that many high-quality old movies lie in the warehouse, have not yet been digitally repaired, and cannot be disseminated in the digital age. Some of the restored works cannot be used by the society, because the restoration unit is not the production unit and does not own the copyright of the film. However, the producers of many old films, such as some old state-run film studios, have either closed down long ago or have been restructured, resulting in the unclear copyright of many old domestic films. He called on the relevant state departments to promote the solution of copyright, digital restoration and use of domestic old films as soon as possible.

In addition, Xie Fei believes that Chinese films "going out" cannot only focus on the export of physical theaters. With the advancement of Internet technology and the advent of the era of integrated media, Chinese films should try more external communication channels such as online cinema lines, and the state should also encourage and promote the market integration and integration of cinema films, TV movies and online movies.

Guangming Daily (13/12/2021)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily