An independent film(or indie film) is a film initially produced without financing or distribution from a major movie studio.
The word "Independent (Underground) film" first appeared around 1996 in China, but it was only in 2000 that it caught mainstream's attention. Many of these independent films are shot by young directors, represented by the sixth generation of Chinese directors (mainly referring to Beijing Film Academy graduates of the middle 1980s), and embody the directors' strong and personal emotion. The film includes: Beijing Bastards; East Palace, West Palace; Shoulder Pole and Girls; The Flying Hair; The Making of Steel and so on.

With an intense expression both in the literature and image, these independent films raised a new innovation in Chinese film scene that was relatively conservative in that time.

However, because most of these films were banned from the public cinema, to find a platform to show their films, directors usually chose an alternative route -- participation in some international film festivals. As a result, these directors really gained much high praise in the outside world. Gradually a group of young directors, like Jia Zhangke, Wang Xiaoshuai, Zhang Yuan, Lu Xuechang, Lou Ye, Wang Chao, and Zhu We and their works got more and more attention both from the Chinese movie amateurs and the public media.

Since then many famous independent films have debuted one after another along this road, including films such as Suzhou River, Beijing Bicycle, Xiao Wu, Platform, Unknown Pleasures, The Orphan of Anyang , and Seafood. However, these films' commercial value and popularity were well behind their critical success.

The Chinese independent film was greatly significant: it provided another avenue for Chinese film, and expedited the growth of a batch of directors with an innovative and independent spirit. However, with little commercial success achieved in independent films, the directors continuously work in a difficult environment.

Directors

Blocked by the system and unable to express themselves completely, the directors saw independent film as their only choice and hope.

These directors guard the integrity of their films while at the same time offering the audience something new and exciting. One day the independent film movement will be what drives the Chinese film industry

Wang Xiaoshuai

Born in Shanghai (East China) in 1966, Wang Xiaoshuai is considered as one of the most talented young filmmakers in the country. After growing up in Southwest China's Guizhou Province, Wang studied film directing at the Beijing Film Academy from 1985 to 1989.

With fellow thirty-something directors Zhang Yuan, Jia Zhangke, and Zhang Ming, Wang Xiaoshuai is establishing a new kind of mainland cinema that explores both the odd and average characters of contemporary urban Chinese life.

These pictures are nothing like the allegorical period pieces created by Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige in the 1980s. Hidden meanings are few and far between. Mainly, with these young directors, what you see is what you get.

Wang Xiaoshuai's Filmography

1993: The Days (Dongchun de Rizi)

1995: Frozen (Jidu Hanleng)

1996: Shoulder Pole and Girls (Biandan Guniang)

1999: So Close to Paradise (Menghuan Tianyuan)

2000: Beijing Bicycle (Shiqisui de Danche)

Zhang Yuan

Born in Nanjing (East China) in 1963, Zhang Yuan is viewed as the leading figure of the sixth-generation filmmakers. After initially studying drawing and painting, Zhang graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cinematography from the prestigious Beijing Film Academy in 1989.

He started to direct feature films in 1990 and has become one of China's leading cinematic voices with his urban realist works. In 1994, TIME magazine selected Zhang Yuan as one of the hundred young leading directors of the world for the 21st century. In 1999, Zhang was awarded a special directing prize for at the Venice International Film Festival (Italy).

Zhang Yuan's Filmography

1990: Mother (Mama)

1992: Beijing Bastards (Beijing Zazhong)

1994: The Square (Guangchang Documentary)

1995: Sons (Erzi)

1996: East Palace, West Palace (Donggong Xigong)

1999: Crazy English (Fengkuang Yingyu)

1999: Seventeen Years (Guonian Huijia)

Zhang Yang

Born in 1967, Zhang Yang received his BA in Chinese Literature from Zhongshan University (South China's Guangdong Province ) in 1988 and continued his study in the Directing Department of the Central Drama Academy (CDA) in Beijing. After graduating from CDA in 1992, he entered the Beijing Film Studio and is now working for the studio as a director.

His first film, Spicy Love Soup, had box-office receipts placing it among the most successful nonpolitical films in the last two years. It swept all the domestic Chinese awards and was elected for competition at the 1998 Tokyo International Film Festival (Japan) and was invited to the San Diego International Film Festival (United States of America), Kerala Film Festival (India), Pan Asia Film Festival (London), and Far East Film Festival (Italy). It's soundtrack even sold 500,000 units in Mainland China. The film was China's first sleeper hit and was the first independent Chinese film to achieve domestic box office success.

Zhang Yang's Filmography

1997: Spicy Love Soup (Aiqing Malatang)

1999: Shower (Xizao)

2001: Quitting (Zuotian)

Shower

When the film unfolds, Da Ming, who works in the capitalism-oriented South as a businessman, returns to his family home in Beijing after being told that his elderly father has passed away. Da Ming's father owns a traditional bathhouse which he runs with the help of his other son, mentally challenged Er Ming .

Jia Zhangke

Jia was born in 1970 in the small, remote town of Fenyang in North China's Shanxi Province . At the age of 18, Jia was a painting student at a fine arts school in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi. He also developed an interest in fiction, writing his first novel "The Sun Huang On The Crotch" in 1991. Two years later, he was admitted to the Literature Department of the Beijing Film Academy to start his study on film theory..

In 1995 he founded the Youth Experimental Film Group, the first independent film production organization in China. He directed two feature videos with the group --, "Xiao Shan Going Home", which won the Gold Prize at the Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Awards, and "Du Du."

Jia Zhangke's first feature was the 1997 acclaimed film "Xiao Wu" (Pickpocket), which he made the same year he graduated from the Beijing Film Academy.

Jia Zhangke's Filmography

1997: Pickpocket (Xiao Wu)

2000: Platform (Zhan Tai)

2002: Unknown Pleasures (Ren Xiaoyao)

2004: The World (Shijie)

Author:Ivana