After attending the festival, I realized that the independent short films in China are usually student's film or graduation film. Most of the directors set "feature movie" as the standard of career and try hard to seek amount of investment for their first start. This tradition is quite distinct when comparing to Hong Kong..
[More]After attending the festival, I realized that the independent short films in China are usually student's film or graduation film. Most of the directors set "feature movie" as the standard of career and try hard to seek amount of investment for their first start. This tradition is quite distinct when comparing to Hong Kong. Moreover, mentoring system in is popular in Chinese film industry. The success of the film depends on the stream of the director and their academic background. During the creative process, the involvement of the mentor is quite high, or maybe even more than the director himself. There is no such phenomenon in Hong Kong, in which independent filmmaker own comparatively more autonomy to speak for themselves.
— Shared by Ma Chi-hang, director of Malinois Gaze, after attending 12th China Independent Film Festival in China, under the sponsorship of NAE.