Locked Out of His Own Country – Short Interview with Ying Liang, Director of When Night Falls

Director Ying Liang, currently threatened with arrest if he returns to mainland China.

As I noted in a "Newsbites" post back in June, director Ying Liang was threatened with arrest if he set foot back in mainland China earlier this year, following the unveiling of his film When Night Falls (Wo hai you hua yao shuo) at South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival on April 28. The threat received some press back in May, but little has been reported since.

I wrote about Ying’s case in an article for Crikey last week, and interviewed the director via email about his predicament. He confirmed that the threat of arrest still stands. Ying is currently living and working in Hong Kong. I have reproduced his answers from our online chat below with his kind permission.

Newsbites: Sheffield, Censorship, Jia Zhangke’s Beijing Cinema, and Salacious Gossip

Me, sorry? Never! The new documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry has been getting the Chinese embassy in London hot under the collar.

It’s been a very long time between posts here at Screening China. Fear not, the blog is still alive – I’ve just been a little swamped by thesis and article writing, various curating duties and five weeks in China. There’s been a lot going on in Chinese film, so here’s a quick round up of news over the past month or two (apologies for the fact that some of this is quite old!)

Chinese Delegation Pulls Out of Sheffield Doc/Fest

Earlier this week the Chinese diplomatic service launched another offensive in its campaign to confirm the image of the Chinese government as repressive, censorial and generally uptight by demanding that Sheffield Doc/Fest, one of the world’s best known documentary festivals, drop Alison Klayman’s Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry from its program. RealScreen reports: