Five short films on Beijing by world-famous directors from
Italy, Britain, Iran, France and Hong Kong will be screened next
month, the organizers said Wednesday.
Giuseppe Tornatore is
shooting his short film in Beijing (File photo).
The five films, each lasting five minutes, are products of the
"Vision Beijing Project", started in 2006 by the Beijing Foreign
Cultural Exchange Association and the Information Office of the
Beijing Municipal Government to sell the city to the world when it
hosts the Olympic Games next year.
The project required the directors to use their films
visualizing the transformation of Beijing into a modern
metropolis.
Among those participating were Italian Giuseppe Tornatore,
Iranian Majid Majidi, Frenchman Patrice Leconte, Englishman Daryl
Goodrich and Lau Wai-Keung from Hong Kong.
The films will be shown on the national network CCTV as well as
on flights. National broadcasters in Italy, France and Iran will
also air them.
According to the project's website, the directors used a variety
of approaches to capture images of Beijing.
HK director Lau Wai-Keung
and mainland actor Hu Jun at the shooting set. (File
photo)
In his film, Tornatore, director of "Malena" and the "Legend of
1900", tells a story about a middle-school teacher reuniting with
her students 30 years after their graduation. Majidi, director of
the Oscar-nominated "Children of Heaven", focused on
youth.
The theme of Lau's film concerns Beijing's fine foods. He said
that his basic goal was to present the Chinese capital's cuisine in
a nice way "so that everyone in the audience wants to come to
Beijing and have a meal after watching it".
(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2007)