Sha Dan: BJIFF Brings Charisma of Film to More People

原标题：Sha Dan: BJIFF Brings Charisma of Film to More People

Written by Xiao Yang

The 7th Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) is to kick off on April 16. As the curator of Beijing Film Panorama and programs of China Film Archive, Sha Dan (known as Dr. Strangelove) was very excited. One day before the ticket selling of the Film Panorama Section, he had devoted himself to the work. Seeing film fans snap up tickets, he felt as if he had met his bosom friends in film. He said, "BJIFF has come to its 7th year. It's getting maturer and more wonderful year on year. List of films is getting greater and greater."

Sha thinks BJIFF is a great opportunity for China to shape its film image. The festival makes China have the chance to introduce outstanding films from abroad, and show our own film treasures to the world. So, when he was making the plan, he hoped to present different film cultures. "For example, in this year's Comedies of Special Programs, different styles of comedies and influential auteurs from different countries will be shown. And Comedies with Beijing Style will be specially developed. Film works directed by Feng Xiaogang and Xia Gang will be screened to guide the audience to think about China's own film creation in the overall context of comedy, and at the same time to highlight the sense of existence of Beijing as a city where films are produced or film events are held."

Sha Dan disclosed that in this year’s program of domestic film classics, a special review in memory of the 70th anniversary of Wenhua Film Company will be presented. He said, "Although Wenhua Film Company had existed for a very short time, from 1947 to 1952, it had produced a large number of outstanding works. In my view, Wenhua is the most important film company in the 110 years' history of Chinese film. Its productions ran through the whole process around the founding of the Republic of China. To study the transition of Chinese film culture in those years, Wenhua is a sample one can't miss. Starting from Wenhua, we extend another way of planning the panorama. Huang Zuolin is an important auteur from Wenhua. His daughter Huang Shuqin is the well-known director of the fourth generation. Huang Shuqin's son Zheng Dasheng also works at the frontline of artistic film creation. The family can be said to be imbued with the same spirit of Wenren. In this year's Wenren Cinema: Revisiting the Classical Spirit from the East, a batch of Chinese films with rich oriental characteristics produced from the 1920s to the present will be screened." Sha Dan thinks that today when the country advocates Chinese Dream, the program and these films exactly match the emphasis on Chinese characteristics in the era of peaceful rise. He is very glad to see that the BJIFF takes up the mission to realize Chinese Dream and brings charisma of film to more people.

According to Sha, the Film Panorama Section of BJIFF 2017 designed three interesting "Sino-foreign cultural comparisons":Street Angel directed by Yuan Muzhi andAngel Mia directed by Hollywood director Frank Borzage in the 1920s;The Inn at Night directed by Huang Zuolin and Donzoko (The Lower Depths) directed by Akira Kurosawa, both adapted from Gorkey's works;A String of Pearls with music adapted from Maupassant's novel. The three "comparisons" during BJIFF 2017 are highly recommended by him.

After his presence at other Asian film festivals, Sha felt BJIFF to be unique in the world. "Beijing has become an Asian film production center. As the capital of China, the political and cultural center of China, as well as a renowned city with a long history, Beijing has its cultural context. BJIFF belongs to Asia, China and Beijing. This feature is a double-edged sword for film curation. The triple identity makes BJIFF easier to be affected by policies and industrial situation, and calls for a higher macro stance for curation and design.

With the expansion and maturation of the film market, East Asian films, including Chinese films, are gradually catching up with European films and American films, to become one of the three poles in world film culture. Therefore, BJIFF with huger potential will build its global popularity. "Both Pusan and Hong Kong are Asian film cities instead of capitals, while Beijing is well-deserved No. 1 city for Chinese films. BJIFF is incomparable to other film festivals whether in impressiveness or in notability.”