Indie Power

Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke urges his peers in the Middle Kingdom to chase more projects than potential Hollywood blockbusters. Xu Jingxi reports.

China's film industry should give greater support to indie films to keep them from being drowned by bigbudget commercial films as the domestic market grows fast. This is a common appeal made most recently by Chinese director Jia Zhangke and senior executives of the Toronto International Film Festival.

"As the film industry in China enters a new stage, we keep our fingers crossed that while trying to attract a universal audience, Chinese filmmakers remain true to their culture and local stories," says Piers Handling, president and CEO of the festival. Handling was in Beijing and gave a public talk with Jia last month hosted by the Canadian embassy in Beijing.