Where Can Chinese Indies Be Purchased or Viewed Online?

The DVD cover for Zhao Dayong's The High Life, now available through Lantern Films.

Readers of Screening China often write to me and ask where they can obtain copies of the independent Chinese films I write about. Unfortunately it's not easy to get many of the titles, but some are now available on DVD for online purchase, or are available for viewing online, so I thought I'd do a post with a couple of tips on where these sites can be found. Please note I have no affiliations with any of the companies or websites listed and take no responsibility for their products or services. All the sites I've listed provide copies of films with English subtitles.

2010: Chinese Cinema in Review

Documentary maker Ai Xiaoming filming in the studio of painter Yan Zhengxue in Beijing, September 2008. Image Dan Edwards.

While 2010 is rapidly receding into the past, earlier this week dGenerate Films paused for a moment to look back over the past year with a compilation of comments and “best of” lists from a range of filmmakers, critics and academics. Although I was on holiday in Australia when they were compiling contributions, I managed to knock  together a quick entry comprising titles, moments and events that sprung to mind when I thought about the past twelve months. It's been a busy year!

Other contributors include the dGenerate team, academic Michael Berry, Beijing-based festival programmer Shelley Kraicer, and filmmakers Xu Tong, Hu Jie and Huang Weikai. My effort is reproduced below – you can click here for the complete entry on the dGenerate Films site.

Fear, Loathing and HIV: Zhao Liang's Together

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a good Christmas break. I'm back in Beijing after a glorious couple of weeks back home in Australia. It was a warm 28 degrees when I left Sydney (that's Celsius for US readers - or 82 degrees Fahrenheit) and -11 when I touched down in Beijing (12 degrees Fahrenheit). All the more reason to stay inside watching films I suppose!

Towards the end of last year I published a short email exchange I had with documentary maker Zhao Liang about his new film Together. That exchange was background for an article I was writing for the January issue of the The Beijinger magazine, which came out while I was away. Readers in Beijing can pick up a copy from many cafes, galleries and bookshops around town – for everyone else I've reproduced the article below.

dGenerate's Karin Chien in Beijing

dGenerate Films President Karin Chien.

In my last post I mentioned the October visit to Beijing of dGenerate Films President Karin Chien, who was in town meeting many of the directors dGenerate works with, as well as seeking out new talent. I had the pleasure of spending some time with Karin when she was here and was impressed by her quiet eagerness to listen and absorb the views and experiences of people on the ground, from local filmmakers to observers like myself.

dGenerate: Taking Chinese Indie Films to the US

Apologies – time has once again gotten away from me and it's weeks since I last posted. I blame a string of visitors to the capital  – and too many nights out as a result.

A lot has been happening so to get the ball rolling again here's an interview I conducted some time ago with Kevin Lee, Vice President of Programming and Education for dgenerate Films, a non-theatrical US distributor that's taking Chinese independent cinema to North American audiences. Their website has become an important source of news on Chinese independent cinema, and they have been kind enough to link to several of my Screening China posts and other articles this year.

The interview below was conducted during Kevin's visit to Beijing earlier this year and was published in Agenda magazine (no. 66, November 4-17), the sister publication to the Beijinger magazine. It was also published on theBeijinger.com on November 18.