The BRICS Film Cooperation Program was initiated by President Xi Jinping at the BRICS Leaders' Summit in Goa, India, and received a warm response from the heads of state of the five countries and filmmakers. In 2017, the first collaborative film "Where Has Time Gone" came into being, and has been screened and awarded at several film festivals around the world.
On June 17, the second BRICS cooperation film "Half the Sky" held a press conference at the Shanghai Film Festival to announce the main cast and film details of the second part. Chinese director Jia Zhangke will serve as the executive producer this time, catching up with this year's global wave of focus on women's perspectives, inviting five female directors from brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to speak from a female perspective and shoot short films with the theme of "Contemporary Women's Emotions and Society", while the five independent short films will be brought together into a feature film called "Half the Sky".
On June 17, the second BRICS cooperation film "Half the Sky" held a press conference at the Shanghai Film Festival. Director Jia Zhangke and director Liu Yulin.
Bringing together outstanding female directors from the "BRICS Countries"
After the last cooperation, Jia Zhangke believes that the "BRICS" film cooperation is of great significance. "These five countries account for a large proportion of the world's population, and they are all in a process of rapid development, the social situation, the stage of society are very similar, and they are all creative powers of film, and the film industry is very active."
Brazilian director Daniela Thomas, Russian director Elizaveta stishova, Indian director Ashwiny iyer tiwari, South African director Sara Blecher, and Chinese director Liu Yulin presented five films with different styles.
The five female filmmakers are all outstanding practitioners in their respective countries and have won important international awards.
Daniela Thomas, the director of the Brazilian short film Homecoming, is a longtime partner of Berlin International Film Festival Golden Bear winner Walter Cyrus, who not only wrote for many of Cyrus's works, but also co-directed several films with him, including Midnight Horror and Paris, I Love You. The Russian short film "Online Lover" was directed by Eliza Vita Stišova, and her first feature film "Suleiman Hill" was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival and won the honor of Best Film at the first Pingyao International Film Festival, Roberto Rossellini.
Sarah Blank, director of the South African short film "Gender Doubts", has attracted international attention in recent years, directing her first feature film, Burn! "Surf Boy" became the opening film of the Durban Film Festival and represented South Africa in several international film festivals, winning 17 international awards. It is worth mentioning that the Indian short film "Mama's Holiday" was created by "Wrestle It! The "Daddy" team worked hard to create, and the short film was written as "Wrestle! The director of "Daddy" and the director of the short film, Ashvini Iye Tivari, has won the Indian Film Audience Award and was voted one of the most influential women in India by indian magazines.
Concept poster for Half the Sky
The director of the Chinese short film "Dumplings" is Liu Yulin, a new generation of Chinese directors who have attracted much attention. In 2014, Liu Yulin started his directing career with his first short film work "Door God", which won the 41st American Academy Award (Student Unit) Best Narrative Film Award and the American Directors Guild "Best Young Director" Award, and was also shortlisted for more than 50 well-known film festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Tokyo Film Festival, and won more than ten international awards.
Liu Yulin said in his introduction to his short film, "It is not an easy task for an 18-minute short film to tell a story and build an interesting humanistic relationship based on the background of his own country. "In the early days of creating the script, Liu Yulin accumulated material from herself and her friends." How to live is a problem that each of us will think about, but most people are not happy to live, and how to live easily is a state of life that we have been pursuing. But most people live in a very stressful state of life. Not being willing to be mediocre is our pursuit, but most people live according to the definition of "not mediocrity" defined by others and the public. I incorporated these three thoughts into our film. "'Dumplings' tells the story of a mother and daughter who have gone from being estranged to being close to each other and supporting each other, getting to know each other, understanding themselves, and understanding how to live, and understanding the ordinary and relaxed little story." The two generations not only tell their own family stories, but actually reflect the problems of thousands of Chinese families, but also illustrate the values that prevail in our society, and some values are more like an abyss that drowns countless people. Liu Yulin said.
In the film, Chinese food, Chinese music, China's customs and customs, Liu Yulin said, "I hope that the audience of the whole world will see this soil in China, which gives the people a particularly beautiful thing in their days." These beautiful things can make everyone's life tasteful, under the wave of tasteful life is such a very violent vortex and undercurrent, those beautiful dumpling skin bread is the five flavors of life and mood and sorrow. ”
The industry should give more support to women directors
Jia Zhangke introduced that "half the sky" has become an important theoretical generalization and practice of feminism. "Half the Sky" hopes to understand women, listen to women, and pay attention to the realization of women's self-worth through the works of female directors from five countries.
"Female directors present a kaleidoscope of colorful colors, and what I admire as a male filmmaker is that the unique perspective of these women is indeed very different from the male directors' keen observation of human nature and society." Jia Zhangke said.
The topic of women's films is particularly popular in the film industry this year, Jia Zhangke believes, "The tradition of film for so many years, including our mainstream society is still male-centered, the entire film industry, the film environment, giving women attention and support to female filmmakers, I think it is still not enough." So from the perspective of the industry, we are starting from China, and we are also from the perspective of the film industry, there should also be a kind of help, so that more talented women can stand behind the camera and support women to express their emotions. ”
It is reported that "Half the Sky" will be released nationwide within this year.