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Directors quit film festival to protest Kadeer screening

By Liu Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-24 06:52

Chinese directors Jia Zhangke and Tang Xiaobai say they have quit the biggest film festival in Australia because of personal beliefs - not because of any pressure from the Chinese government.

Their action was prompted by the planned airing of a documentary about Uygur separatist Rebiya Kadeer, who the Chinese government believes was behind the deadly ethnic riot in Urumqi on July 5.

The Melbourne International Film Festival starts today for a 17-day run.

"We think it is emotionally unacceptable and beyond the bottom line to share a stage so politicized with Kadeer," said Jia in an e-mail to China Daily.

Special coverage: Urumqi Riots Related readings:  Film directors' withdrawal supported at home  Chinese films quit Melbourne festival over Kadeer film  Xinjiang doubles compensation for bereaved families  Separatism to be outlawed in riot-torn Xinjiang region  Xinjiang riot hits regional anti-terror nerve  Rebiya's fake evidence only fools herself

"Therefore," he said, "my company has decided to quit the festival to express our personal position."

Tang - as well as director Zhao Liang - said she quit the festival for the same reason.

"I do not want to take part in a film festival that is so politicized," she told China Daily by telephone. "Film is film. I only want to focus on my work."

Tang said she received telephone calls several days ago from the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) in which they told Tang about the Kadeer documentary.

Tang denied, however, that the two institutions pressured her to quit the festival.

"They told me the news, nothing else," she said. "Personally, I do not want to see my film screened on the same platform as a film about Kadeer."

The newspaper The Australian reported that Kadeer plans to fly to Australia from the US, where she lives in exile, to attend the festival.

Jia said in his e-mail: "We have no intention of interfering in the festival as a platform of free art communication. The withdrawal is just an act of self-restraint."

Tang said she has no regrets in losing the opportunity to publicize her film, which won the Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema in the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2008. "The film has been screened at many good festivals," she said.

Xinhua News Agency said Jia wrote a letter to the festival earlier, saying he decided to quit the festival to protest Kadeer's attendance at the event.

Jia said most of the families of those killed in the July 5 riot in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, believe Kadeer's World Uygur Congress was behind the violence.

The regional government said 197 people were killed and more than 1,600 injured.

Zhao, the third director to quit the film festival, turned down a request for an interview.

Chen Shan, a professor with the Beijing Film Academy, said he stands with the three directors.

"I think the act should be acknowledged for their patriotic protest over the separatists," he said.

Du Qingchun, a colleague of Chen, took a more laid-back attitude toward the matter.

"I see their act as personal choice," he said. "Everyone is entitled to express his or her attitude. That's it."

Richard Moore, the festival's director, told AFP that he would stand firm on including the documentary in the festival's program.

British director Ken Loach withdrew his film from the festival as well, to protest Israeli sponsorship of the festival.