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CENSORSHIP
Technical Problems ... à la Chinoise
Some
like it, some definitely don't: the three hour long documentary The
Gate of Heavenly Peace has had amazing success at box offices in some
parts of the world, while in others it has been banned or tends to have
sudden "technical problems" which cause screenings to be cancelled.
Christian Iseli
Ever since the nuanced and impressively crafted documentary on the tragic outcome of the student protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989 left the editing room of filmmakers Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon, it has tended to raise the blood pressure of festival directors and distributors. The reason for this lies not so much in the film's political message itself but in the pressure that was put on festival officials by the Chinese government and its representatives. It all started back in October 1995 at the New York Film Festival when the Chinese government attempted to prevent Zhang Yimou's film Shanghai Triad from being shown at the New York Film Festival because The Gate of Heavenly Peace was being screened. When this attempt failed, the Chinese government succeeded in "persuading" Zhang Yimou not to attend the opening of his film. Six months later Yu Shuning of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China wrote an official letter to the director of the Washington D.C. International Film Festival, Tony Gittens. "If this film is shown during the festival, it will mislead the audience and hurt the feelings of the 1.2 billion Chinese people," he wrote and concluded: "Therefore it is necessary and appropriate to withdraw this film from the festival." Tony Gittens didn't think so and he released Yu's letter to the press. Geremie Barme, associate director of The Gate of Heavenly Peace, wrote a letter in reply to Yu, quoting Mao Zedong ("You have no right to speak without first investigating the situation") and recommending that Yu Shuning should perhaps see the film first, and help to make it possible for the 1.2 billion Chinese people to do the same, before condemning it.
On other occasions China's intervention proved to be more efficient. At the Singapore International Film Festival The Gate of Heavenly Peace could not be scheduled because it was banned by the Board of Film Censors. The festival organisers were bold enough to make a legal appeal but were turned down twice. Later, in July 1997, the censorship board — to everybody's surprise — suddenly lifted the ban on The Gate of Heavenly Peace. The filmmakers and their world sales agent, Jane Balfour, therefore assumed that a theatrical release was possible now. But the news from Singapore was somewhat different: it only meant that one single screening in the framework of a festival was allowed (as the censorship board stated more precisely). Jane Balfour has now approached the censorship board again in order to get a clarification of the rather confusing situation.
At the Second Annual Film Festival in Seoul, South Korea, The Gate of Heavenly Peace was originally scheduled to be the opening film. Shortly before the gala night took place the screening was cancelled because of "technical problems" — as the official explanation went. But officials revealed off the record that the festival's main sponsor, a documentary TV channel owned by the worldwide corporation Samsung, obviously feared that the chances of an expanding market would diminish if they antagonized the Chinese by showing the film. In protest, three of the five festival judges and numerous staff members quit immediately. Documentary filmmaker Michael Benson, who was invited to the festival, took the screenings of his film Predictions of Fire as an opportunity to stand up and inform the public about the scandal. However, this was only successful the second time when he was able to get a reliable interpreter. The official translation at the first screening of his film had made the audience laugh like he was telling one joke after another. Benson's stay in Seoul, where most of the festival officials had business cards with Samsung's name on them, turned into a Kafkaeske and spooky experience. The filmmaker felt as if he was being observed at every step and attempts were made to isolate him from other festival guests, as he reports. "The festival officials switched to damage-control mode. And they had identified me as damage," Bensons says and adds: "I cannot, of course, prove the fact that the opening night screening of The Gate of Heavenly Peace was cancelled after a phone call from the Chinese Embassy, in which Samsung was threatened with losing access to the Chinese market. I can however say for sure that, if they were to dispute such a claim in court, I couldn't afford to defend myself against the Samsung lawyers. I simply don't have their financial resources, I'm an independent filmmaker."
Questions remain why the American-made documentary has not been shown at other festivals including Sundance, or why Berlin's festival director Moritz de Hadeln first was enthusiastic about the film but two months later showed no interest in taking it (it was finally screened in the independent festival section "Forum des jungen Films"). The filmmakers suspect that in these cases as well, pressure from China was responsible, as unofficial statements and rumours seem to hint. Says co-director Carma Hinton, "it is shameful for film festivals in the West to reject a film because of pressure from the Chinese government." Moritz de Hadeln clearly denies submitting to Chinese pressure 18 months ago. "I had seen a rough cut version of the film several months before the festival and had liked it very much," de Hadeln explained to DOX, "but unfortunately the final version differed much from what I had seen. I missed a lot of the very good scenes and was disappointed by the use of the Hollywood-style music they had mixed onto their soundtrack." The filmmakers feel that Moritz de Hadeln's explanation is an excuse for his bowing to China's pressure. Richard Gordon claims that the finished film "differed very little from the cut Moritz de Hadeln had seen before" and explains: "The changes consisted of many small trims that added up to 10 minutes, out of the 198 minute fine-cut which de Hadeln saw."
Apart from all the headaches the film by Hinton and Gordon has caused throughout its career, it has also been an amazing success, especially in the place that is closest to mainland China, and which now even shares its government: The Gate of Heavenly Peace started in Hong Kong's cinema "Columbia Classics" in January and ran for more than four months, grossing a sum of almost 3 million HK $ (about. 390,000 US $). After the audience had dwindled in June, the film was shown in a smaller theatre for several more weeks. Additional screenings were scheduled after July 1.
Meanwhile Hinton and Gordon are waiting in suspense for a decision from the South Korean censorship board on whether The Gate of Heavenly Peace (recent winner of the Banff international critics' prize) will have a theatrical release. According to the South Korean distributor, the chances are not so bad. If it gets through, the ban at the Samsung-sponsored Seoul film festival will appear in a different light: big business (Samsung) seems to be more chicken than the politicians.
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The Gate of Heavenly Peace
Beijing, June 4, 1989: the People's Liberation Army of China sends tanks in to the city centre to clear Tiananmen Square, which had been occupied by student protesters for six weeks. The image of a single man stopping a row of tanks by simply standing in front of them and stopping their path goes around the world and quickly becomes a metaphor for a democratic movement that confronts a totalitarian power but is swept away. Years later this condensed symbol produced by the ever-hungry news coverage of CNN et al still remains in the memory of millions of people all over the world. But what else do we still know about what happened at Tiananmen square in 1989 - that memorable year in which the Berlin Wall also came down?
The 198-minute documentary The Gate of Heavenly Peace (USA 1995) by Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon offers the opportunity to return to that most dramatic period. With an as yet unseen richness of archival footage drawn from both professional news coverage and amateur material, the film illuminates the political and human complexities of the events of the time. The film reveals how hardliners in the government marginalized moderates within the protest movement, and how the actions of radical students played right into the hands of hardline government members. As in other revolutionary situations, extremism on both sides finally led to the trigger mechanism that made the tragedy inevitable. One of the central parts of The Gate of Heavenly Peace is an interview with radical student leader Chai Ling conducted by an American journalist just before the June 4th massacre. "What we are actually hoping for is bloodshed, for the moment when the government has no choice but to brazenly butcher the people. Only when the Square is awash with blood will the people of China open their eyes," said a desperate Chai Ling in tears. Chai later refused to be interviewed again by the film crew, and attacked the film for being pro-communist and engaging in purely commercial and profit-oriented speculation.
The Gate of Heavenly Peace in no way excuses the brutality of the Beijing regime, but it casts new light on these tragic events. Carma Hinton, who lived in China until she was 21, and her husband Richard Gordon also weave in background information about the history of protests that have taken place at Tiananmen square throughout this century and succeed at explaining the socio-political interrelations of the Chinese system, such as the role of the People's Liberation Army.
Despite its three-hour length and conventional word-dominated journalistic approach, The Gate of Heavenly Peace never seems too long. Its masterful narrative structure makes watching it a most stimulating and moving experience. (chi)
http://www.nmis.org/gate/
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CAPTION:
Tanks roll into Tiananmen Square on June 4 1989: dramatic scene of
The Gate of Heavenly Peace by Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon.
© Long Bow Group
DOX #12 / September 1997
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© by DOX / EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY NETWORK
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