Cultural films fail to take off amid box office slump

Gao Feng, director of the film Lao Qiang. [Photo/xinhuanet.com]

Even in Xi'an, where laoqiang originated, cinemas have largely shunned Gao's folk film in favor of star-studded films. Those unlucky enough to live close enough to the few cinemas screening Lao Qiang are forced to rent out an entire screen by making block bookings.

Gao hopes the Chinese film sector can learn from its French counterpart which attaches great importance to the protection of national culture and arts.

"In the Latin Quarter in Paris, the cinemas are showing different kinds of cultural movies," said Gao. "French cinemas are obliged to adopt a quota-based system and set aside a quarter of screenings for domestic cultural films and documentaries."

The policy has not only satiated those with maturing cinematic tastes, it has also helped foster a world-famous and well respected cinema brand.

"Cinema chains should have to assign quotas for different kinds of movies," said Gao. "The market has different needs and cinemas can still make money by responding to various audience groups."

The lack of such quotas has left many cultural film producers quite literally begging for mercy.

When Song of the Phoenix – a cultural film about the inheritance of the trumpet-like folk instrument suona – debuted in May, its producer, Fang Li, felt so frustrated by the "unfair treatment" received by cinema chains that he publically begged for more session of the film to be shown. News reports of Fang bending the knee soon emerged and went viral, saving the production from rotten tomato status.

The future of cultural films in China remains uncertain, but Gao knows one thing for sure: he will never kneel down for the box office.