Beijing holds 2017 ＂Looking China＂ screening ceremony

By Qian Ding, cctv.com reporter

The 2017 Looking China Youth Film project screening ceremony was held at Beijing normal university on Friday, July 21. Six movies debuted in the ceremony. Huang Huilin, Dean of the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture, the founder of "Looking China" project; Zhang Kai ,Vice president of Beijing Normal University; and embassies' representatives attended.

Ceremony hall,Beijing Normal University

Between April and July, 103 young filmmakers from 37 countries made 103 documentaries in 12 regions in China, based on the theme "Craftsmanship, Inheritance, Innovation".

Beijing holds 2017 "Looking China" screening ceremony

The six films presented in the ceremony are Desert Combater, A New Spring, The Bridge Between Us, Watch People, The King of Ice and Tea Mountains.

Desert Combater, directed by Cambodian filmmaker Phan Chansey, is about a man and his peers trying to turn desertland into a forest in Inner Mongolia.

A New Spring, directed by Australian filmmaker Marleena Forward, is a short interview with famous Chinese artist Lan Tianye. He explained the history of Chinese drama since 1949 when People’s Republic of China was established.

Directed by Akos Kovacs, the movie The Bridge Between Us shows how Chinese instrument Erhu connects two generations in a Shanghai family.

Watch People is a documentary directed by Christian Grobbelaar from South Africa. It portrays a disabled man's career as watchmaker and how he found his purpose in life.

The King of Ice, directed by Domas Merkliopas from the UK, illustrates the challenges and risks the scientists face in China's Antarctic expeditions.

Israeli director Dmitry Konopliv showed how to produce high quality tea in the movie Tea Mountains.

More documentaries under the theme "Craftsmanship, Inheritance, Innovation" are going to be shown in the future.

"Looking China Youth Film Project" invites young foreign filmmakers to make a 10-minute documentary with the help of Chinese teammates. The program focuses on the young participants' personal experiences of Chinese culture and encourages them to discover and tell Chinese stories from their own perspectives. There have been seven editions since 2011, producing 404 movies.