Epoch Times - How Beijing Shapes What Films You See at Festivals | Yan Ma
Aired: 2025-08-15
Duration: 02:52


=== Concerns Over Chinese Influence (02:20) ===

[00:00:00]  We tried a few festivals, but we get a response that they are a little concerned about the topic because some of the very big festivals, usually they are very connected to China.
[00:00:16]  A lot of filmmakers, Chinese filmmakers, came every year.
[00:00:20]  So they're concerned that, because this happened to them before, if they accept our film, the Chinese government will ask the rest of the Chinese filmmakers to leave the festival.
[00:00:31]  So they will suffer a loss.
[00:00:34]  So yeah, so we experienced this in Taiwan Film Festival before the Golden Horse.
[00:00:44]  They said the same thing.
[00:00:46]  If we accept you, that means we lose all other Chinese film.
[00:00:52]  Because the government will just force them to withdraw.
[00:00:56]  You know, it's very interesting.
[00:00:57]  It reminds me, there's a really powerful book called The Collaboration.
[00:01:04]  It was written about how Hollywood worked with the Nazi regime in the 1930s to make sure, I believe in the middle of the 1930s, there was not a single film made critical of Nazi Germany, even though these extreme anti-Semitic policies were already kind of being put in place.
[00:01:22]  Not just anti-Semitic, there were all sorts of red flags, but Hollywood basically didn't notice, even though there were filmmakers who wanted to make those films.
[00:01:34]  We also know that.
[00:01:36]  There's an eerie parallel here.
[00:01:39]  That's just happens for culture market sometimes.
[00:01:48]  Even including the Holocaust, in the beginning, when the Nazi regime is still there, before they were defeated, it's like no one believed it.
[00:01:59]  Same thing, it reminds me about the organ harvesting too.
[00:02:02]  I don't know if you, you're probably familiar with the topic.
[00:02:05]  When we first heard about it, it was just like, that was 2003, 2004, very early.

=== Writers' Responsibility Matters (00:46) ===

[00:02:12]  But yeah, not at this gradually, I mean, the culture products are picking that up.
[00:02:19]  I hope that will make a difference.
[00:02:21]  Because it is important, because this is what opened people's mind.
[00:02:25]  So they want to do something about it, right?
[00:02:29]  Some news is too shocking.
[00:02:30]  It's just maybe the general public will react to it very slowly.
[00:02:35]  That's why, I mean, like, it's actually a great responsibility for all the filmmakers and writers to focus on issues like this.
[00:02:46]  Because it can shape opinion for the public, right?