VIFF SUFFERS CHINA SYNDROME

Ken Eisner
Straight.com

Dealing with an unusually large number of films coming from China, Vancouver International Film Festival programmers were expecting a few snags when dealing with Beijing. It was surprising, then, that the holdups came out of Ottawa. Of the six filmmakers invited–all young but relatively well travelled and previously feted at outside events–only Peng Tao, writer-director of the gritty Little Moth (screening October 1 and 2), had been given a visa to enter Canada by the evening of September 25, according to VIFF head Alan Franey.

"It's hard not to come to the conclusion that the Chinese filmmakers are being singled out," Franey surmises. "You used to be able to bridge some of these issues through an external-affairs desk of the government, but that doesn't seem to be available anymore."

Apparently, this unexplained slowdown is happening in the world-music sphere as well, as Franey discovered while comparing notes with other festival mavens.

"We have been getting some help from the cultural side of the embassy in Beijing, but not enough, I guess," says Nico Lorenzutti, the VIFF's travel coordinator for international guests. "Peng Tao has been here before, so that may have made a difference in his paperwork. We just don't know."