Interview with the "Yunnan New Film Project" Chief Producer Lola.
By Matteo Damiani

1) Could you tell us something about "Yunnan New Film Project"?

“Yunnan Influence” is short for “The Influence of Yunnan New Film Project.” I would descibe this project with three keywords, which are “Yunnan”, “female filmmakers” and “genre-films,” i.e. ten genre films directed by ten avant-garde, young directresses in ten beautiful places in Yunnan.

The first keyword is Yunnan. It relates to the themes chosen, such as the themes about Dali, Lijiang, Lugu Lake, Shangri-La, Dehong, Tengchong, Baoshan and Taohua Yuan in Wenshan County. These places are the most mystical ones of their own characteristics. They are not just confined to a form of local folk custom, but rather connected to the world.

These ten female filmmakers are from the Chinese Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong. They are all recognized in several fields of art.

Xiao Jiang is from BeiJing. Li Hong is from ShangHai. Yan Yan Mak is from Hong Kong. Ismene Ting is a native of Taiwan. Caofei is from Guang Zhou. Huang Ruxiang is from SiChuan province. Yu Jiangying and Yin Lichuan are from Beijing. You will find their information in our post book.

Some of them are professional directresses, such as Xiao Jiang, Li Hong and Yan Yan Mak. They are all internationally recognized young filmmakers. Some of them are famous in different fields of art. For example, Ismene Ting is a talented actress in Taiwan. She is the chief member of Taiwan's 'Performance Workshop'. This theatre group is regarded as a pioneer and a great master in the related field in Taiwan. Cao Fei is currently considered to be one of the most talented of China’s young artists.

All these ten female filmmakers were born in 1970s after. Yin Lichuan is now well known within China for her novels, poetry and essays who was born in the 1970s. She shot her film in the Green Lake Park several days ago. Cao Fei is a directress of documentary. Yu Jiangying is not only an excellent girl but also a musican. Li Guang is the Director's Assistant for Zhang Yimou's films. She acted as assistant of film editor, script holder and director’s assistant when she worked for Zhang Yimou. Hunag Ruixiang used to shot documentary. Because of her experiences, she is a directress of her own power.

These are details about the second keyword.

The third keyword is “genre film.” The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television sets a policy for film industry, and they hope film industry will be more industrialized. They also hope that film industry would combine with not only business but good quality artistic production. Our project is a kind of gerne film. It involves ten varieties, such as comedy, children film, film about women, absurd magic realism, suspense and black humor, which are included in Hollywood’s films.

Yunnan New Film Project can be interpreted as these three words. Why do we come to Yunnan province to operate our film? That is because Yunnan province is different from other provinces in China. That is the policy. The Government of Yunnan province offers a good policy to our artists. That is providing a platform or a larger space to support us. In addition, there are wonderful natural resources and humanistic culture resources in Yunnan. Many film produce companys, even though some Hollywood’s production companies and directors attach importance to Yunnan province’s natural resources. They also shoot films here, which in my opinion, is a comparatively straightforward means. This is because they only use Yunnan’ scenery for their films. We will use more and develop more because we focus on both natural and humanistic culture resources in Yunnan province. Actually humanistic culture resources are more attractive to the world than natural resources, and are more charming, mysterious and oriental.

That is the introduction to the “ Yunnan New Film Project”.

2) Why you have chosen 10 female directors?

Why did I choose ten female filmmakers to finish this project?

The first reason is we hope we would win because many famous artists do a project together. This project was considered to be the effects of a collectivity’s ability originally. This is why we need many directors to operate this project. Many international incidents that are very influential are due to a group’s efforts, not one person. Actually each number of this group has his wisdom. When they work as a group they would exert all their to achieve a project. Lots of producer confirm a theme, and then ask some best artists to complete this theme so that this project would get a resounding success. Actually, Yunnan New Film Project is a kind of this project.

Second reason for my decision?

Firstly, they are so smart. If we put their talent in various fields to a rational process, then they may have a fantastic quantity of effect. This effect is much better than each of them would have.

Secondly, attention to the economy as an art film category, it may take some more shiny ideas. But film was a simple art before. For example, I invested a good scenario after I read it. What did I do? I would hire a good director and let him set up his working party. It means this director should select cinemactors, cinemactress and other operators. But we consider Yunnan New Film Project should begin with its top. ( So we hired these filmmakers at first. And then each of them could choose a scenario that she wants to shoot and sets up her own working group.)

Thirdly, for being a girl, it gives her certain advantages over male filmmakers. One side, she is talented. On the other hand, she has a sort of ability for containing everything. This ability is a kind of maternity. Therefore she looks at every aspect of the situation, not only one aspect. These ten girls have completely different characters, inventing styles and they are in completely different fields. They will bring some newer elements and newer sparkles.

The culture is very mystic in Yunnan Province. And Yunnan Province is so gentle like a lady. The effect, which is combines Yunnan province and female filmmakers, will have a coincide with Yunnan province’s temperament. It is very difficult for you to use a idiographic things to describe. Such talent here brings a reaction which will show up in their works. Not shown, it is a kind of infiltration. The reaction will infiltrate from the bottom up slowly. The effect is certainly not the same. It is a unique. I got a good project, so I chose women.

Fourthly, I myself am a woman.

In fact we planned and prepared this project two years ago. That was the end of 2004. We began to operate it in May last year. It is almost two years from planning to now. We already finished two films. One is Yin Lichuan's film, named “Chinese Father”. Another one was shot in Shuhe Ancient Town, Lijiang, named “The Case”. These two films attracted many media’s that is from China and Hollywood attention. Now this new approach of making film has already been recognized. This new approach is to create a commercial process, which is based on the cooperation between government and us. Through this process, we will complete the valuse of our works and the work of cultural exchange. Many organizations, film production companys and governments adopt this new method. They may find something better after us, they could learn our method then use the better one late.

3) There are similar project in China?

As far as know, there might be a similar project , that is “ Beijing Project”, in Beijing late. But they haven’t announced it yet. In Taiwan, Li’an and some filmmakers hope they can do a similar project with young filmmakers.

So I think it is nice that every one use this approach. Everybody hopes to do it better. In fact, we didn’t think our method would be recognized at the beginning. I really have a successful and happy feeling because it is recognized by so many people, and many people are studying it. To do it together is good for the film market, inheriting Chinese traditional culture and exchanging cultures with outside world. It also gives the next generation of young Chinese filmmakers more opportunities and encourages them to explore their creative potential. So I hope every person can use this method. Now we do it first. When we succeed, everybody can use it. 

After all, our apporach doesn’t like the mode of the world. They produce a film at a time in the international area. Every company does it like this. This is also related to the situation of China. Thinking about the rate of the investment and the revenue, it is impossible to hire ten filmmakers for producing ten films. Generally small production companies, even the major production companies, don’t dare to do such attempts. But it is possibe in China. 

4) When this project will be finished?

We started in May 2005. We held a news briefing in Great Hall of the People on Sep. 20th, 2005. I took these ten directress to Yunnan in October and December last year. We walked around Yunnan province for collecting folk songs in every place within Yunnan province. January to May this year was the script-writing stage. Six scripts has already been finished and censored. These six scripts can be shot. The remains of four scripts would be shot after censored. Now we have already finished two films. We plan to finish other two films at the end of this year. Others would be finished next year. We will finish all ten films in next year. This is a rough idea of our plan.

5) Who is your favorite young Chinese director?

They are interesting young Chinese directors, aren’t they? Or talented directors? I think they are the ten young directresses in our group. Each director has his own life experiences and creative experiences so that every director should be interesting. But I think female directors are more interesting than male directors.

My favorite…I like… Let me talk about the type. As you know, it is very hard for me to say who is my favorite director? I like this type, who has view in both the humanities and some new element for adapting to the social. This type, who knows both multimedia and the whole society. In the other words he can concretely create a very interesting commercial story under the back ground which is formed with polity economy. This is my favourite type. A big part of our filmmakers in our group are this type. Of course some of them are more artistic and some are more commercialization. The interesting director whom I like is Zhang Yimou. And the other I could not recall. According to my standard, I think that the most excellent dircetor is Zhang Yimou. The other depends on how many elitists will get out of these ten directresses.