HRW: China Pressured Filmmakers to Shutdown IndieChina Film Festival

NEW YORK: Human Rights Watch (HRW), a US-based advocacy group, has accused Chinese authorities of harassing several dozen Chinese film directors and producers, along with their families in China, to compel them to withdraw their films from the inaugural IndieChina Film Festival in New York City.

The rights body stated that on Thursday, the festival's organiser, Zhu Riku, announced that the film festival, scheduled for November 8 to November 15, had been "suspended."

"The Chinese government reached around the globe to shut down a film festival in New York City. This latest act of transnational repression demonstrates the Chinese government's aim to control what the world sees and learns about China," said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at HRW.

According to the rights body, on November 1, the organisers issued an announcement on social media saying they had received messages from some film directors and producers and their families about Chinese government harassment. By November 4, more than two-thirds of participating films had cancelled their screenings.

The HRW mentioned that independent film festivals in China have faced intensifying crackdowns over the past decade. It added that the Chinese government's tightening of ideological controls has resulted in the prosecution and imprisonment of several filmmakers and has caused many others to go into exile.

In 2014, the rights body said, a court sentenced Shen Yongping, a prominent Chinese filmmaker whose documentary about the constitution was critical of the government, to one year in prison for alleged "illegal business activity." (IANS)

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