From the 1st to the 8th of October 2017, in Hancheng, China, the fist edition of Jinzheng International Short Film Festival was held.
I honestly do not remember if I apply for that festival sending my film or if they found me and asked me to apply, but they selected my short film Merlot and ivited me, together with all the other selected directors, to spend 10 days in China!!
I thought it was quite a big opportunity, so I decided to go.
Here I'll tell you my experience in China and at the festival, trying to combine personal experiences in a new country with the festival itself.
Fist of all, as the name of the festival says, it is not a festival only for animations, but for short films. So there were also short live action films and short documentaries. I would say also that animation was only a little section of it.
The festival was created last year by some European festival directors, who met together in Hancheng and made it happen.
The festival takes place in a Cinema (5 screening theatres), on the 4th floor of an empty and super new building that was built on purpose for the festival and concluded few days before the opening ceremony!
The cinema is in front of the entrance of the old city, which is very beautiful and where you can find the food markets (also night food markets), great places to spend time and taste amazing food.
There were different selection groups for films:Grand Prix (films selected by other festivals), International Competition, National Competition, National Student Competition, Youth Programme, Children Programme, Silk Road.
Every block was very various, mixing techniques and genres.
Apparently the open ceremony and the closing/award ceremony were majestic, but unfortunately I missed them both :( They both lasted about 3 hours and included orchestra music, performances, songs, etc.
The awards are pretty big (around 8000 euros if I am not wrong) and they were for best director, best national short film, best international and best grand prix, if I remember well.
All the directors were invited (payed trips and accomodation!) and this was a great chance and big generosity from the festival itself. Still wondering if it was just a boost for the first edition or not.
I met many directors and amazing people there, but, I have to say, sadly, mainly western people, since the Chinese directors were for me difficult to find and reach. Living such an incredible experience and sharing all this together is also pretty intense and one week is enough to feel a good connection with everybody. I think there were about 100 western guests at the festival.
We were staying in three different hotels, some better than the others. The directors were all together, the festival directors and the jury were somewhere else, still not far from each other.
The festival also organized some trips around Hancheng and were pretty much open to proposals. We went to a couple of ancient villages, to a national monument, to a mausoleum and to a light show on a lake. Then some of us asked to go to the Yellow River too. Taxis are so cheap that very often we used them to move.
Some more pictures I took, you can see here
Practical info:
- To go to China you need a VISA. For this purpose the festival provided me an invitation, but I still had to provide many other documents to the embassy and also to pay a fee (it was for me around 200 euros, but I heard from other people attending the festival very diversed prices! Bureacracy misteries!)
- in China there is no Google! Maybe you already know, but it was for me a big surprise. All the app I normally use do not work in China. No Gmail, no Google Maps, no Google Calender, no Facebook, no Instagram, no Whatsapp.
They all use Wechat and they use it for everything! Also to pay for food!
- In Hancheng was pretty impossible to get cash from the bank or to change money. So we had to bring cash from home (or change at the airport of Xi'an, but I am not sure about the interest).
- NOBODY speaks English. There are really a few few people who speaks English, ans they were mainly the volunteers (students from Xi'an). The rest of the people will just keep on talking to you in Chinese.
- There are no western people in Hancheng, so be ready to be stopped in the streets about 1000 times a day for pictures. Everybody will stare at you and find you amazing, and you'll get quickly used to it.
Some more facs and personal opinions:
- the local currency is the Chinese Yuan. Everything is very cheap for us coming from Europe.
- In this occasions it's good to do networking and get to know the people at the festival and especially the other guests. The time was short, so I tried to spend some time with everybody, which meant sometimes to change company every day.
- I found the air pollution very shocking and heavy. You cannot see the sun because of a white "fog" that covers all the area (I saw it for the whole time I was there. From the airport of Xi'an to Hancheng - 3 hours drive -!)
- You cannot drink tap water
- The way they drive and use the horn in the streets is very peculiar and funny
- When you are going to festivals so far away from home, and in countries you'd like to visit, it's great to take advantage of that and stay after the festival to travel a bit. It was unfortunately for me not possible, but many of the guests did it and I would surely recommend it. I would do it, If I didn't have some upcoming deadline and if I had a fellow to travel with. Alone around in China sounds a little too much for me, even if I love lonely trips!)
- At the end of the experience, once you're back and the jet lag is gone, don't forget to FOLLOW UP!
I leave you with a link of one of the winner of the festival, a Japanese Short Film that conquered the audience and the Jury (and which is luckily online):
And so we put Goldfish in the Pool
some more Chinese pictures on my travel-instagram
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