The reporter EMILY PATTERSON (the United States) from the magazine Women of China reported the producer Lola and her Yunnan New Film Project.
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Like many other countries, China is a rough place for young filmmakers. Few companies give aspiring directors thefunds to turn their bright ideas into movies. Enter Lola, director of the Yunnan New Film Project.
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Before the 2006 Academy Awards, a giant billboard stood next to Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard. "Women directed only seven percent of the top 200 films of 2005. No woman has ever won the best-director Oscar. Only three have been nominated," read the text beneath the photo of a giant, angry gorilla clutching an Oscar.
Nothing is different in China. The list of the country's world-famous directors, such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang, does not contain a woman's name.
But a challenge to the men-only club is being waged from an unlikely location: Yunnan Province. The area in Southwest China is best known for its minority groups' cultures, spicy cuisine and tourist towns-not for its support of the arts. But since last year, the provincial government has given 10 young women directors from across China the funding to shoot movies in the province.
Although the government has put up the money, the passion for the Yunnan New Film Project has come from Lola, the producer.
Passion for Film
Lola, who was born in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, moved to Beijing after she graduated from university to work as a freelance post-production editor. But Lola's real love was filmmaking. In her spare time she produced documentaries about Beijing's modern ar t and underground music scenes. Through her work, she met many talented, but struggling, young directors.
In 1995, she came up with an idea to help them. Lola launched a website, similar to today's Youtube, to which directors could upload their short films. The site was a flop. "She was ahead of her time," said Yi Ti, a consultant for the Yunnan film project.
In 2001, optimistic that she had finally found a way to help her director friends, Lola accepted a job at Beida Xingguang Guoji, a Beijing movie and entertainment production company. But the business refused to back Lola's plans to fund young directors; instead, the company preferred to invest in established filmmakers, whose works were guaranteed to make profits.
Frustrated, Lola began looking for another outlet. Last year, she heard that Yunnan's provincial government was funding arts programs that promoted the local culture and landscape. She approached the government and struck a deal: The government would put up the money, and Lola would organize the project. Lola chose to use only women directors, not just because women benefit from extra support in the male-dominated field, but also because the gimmick would attract more media coverage.
