Thursday, August 14, 2008

La respuesta de los Chinos: el arte de documentar

"Sólo el error necesita el apoyo del gobierno. La verdad se sostiene sola."

--Thomas Jefferson

Da alegría saber que hay una respuesta interna en China de la situación política y social que está viviendo su población. ¿Qué hay DEBAJO de todo ese emporio de rascacielos y crecimiento económico neoliberal exacerbado? ¿Qué oculta el gobierno de China que le resulta indispensable controlar TODA la información que pasa por sus dominios, incluyendo el control sobre las conciencias de sus ciudadanos? ¿En dónde quedó el verdadero comunismo?

Lástima que a los chinos les hayan coartado su libertad de expresión y decisión sobre qué leer y qué pensar....pasará algo de tiempo antes de que ellos, alguno de ellos, pueda leer esto. A nosotros también nos han coartado la libertad de expresar nuestras ideas, ¡nos han restringido CHINA!

Alguna luz se ve al final, muy al final, del rescacielo de corrupción y represión que viven los Chinos. Sólo ellos, eso es claro, sólo ellos pueden librarse de lo que ellos mismos han permitido construir. China, estamos esperando escuchar su voz, no de auxilio, sino de LUCHA.



Ahora sí.....la nota de impacto:



Peng Wenlan reports..

Television in China, as with radio and the press, comes under tight state control. Referred to as “the voice of the Communist Party”, it is used unequivocally and unashamedly as a propaganda tool to reflect a bright, positive and inspiring view of life.


“Issues” or anything mildly negative, critical or expository, are deemed to be unconstructive, even seditious. So it was more than just a pleasant surprise when I was able to view the work of directors in western China – some of them from remote, landlocked areas – and discovered that they were making documentaries on a variety of social issues, some of a deeply sensitive nature.
I had been posted to China in July 2006 for a year by the BBC World Service Trust, as documentary consultant, to run workshops on documentary production in the western regions. My job took me to the arid lands of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and the Mongolian steppes in the north and the lush, idyllic landscapes of Yunnan and Sichuan in the southwest.

Of the directors who attended the workshops, some hailed from the bigger provincial and regional television outfits, while others had travelled hundreds of miles from small rural stations. But they had one thing in common: a commitment to making social documentaries with a frankness that stood in sharp contrast to what I had known of Chinese television in earlier years.
State Network.


The first time I had worked in China was in the eighties, when I was presenting and producing a weekly programme about Western culture and society on China Central Television. Although, or rather because, it was about other countries, we were expected to portray only positive images. The state network is, after all, a mirror of government policy and a vehicle for diplomatic relations ( which is why China still gets so upset when foreign broadcasters show programmes that are critical of the country).

As for domestic themes, one could never mention any “problems”, for the simple reason that the media was supposed to be a platform on which only virtuous people and exemplary deeds should be exhibited to the general public. The tone of the narration was always highly didactic and any achievements were inevitably credited to the guiding light of the glorious Communist Party.
Social Documentaries.


In recent years, however, social issues have been covered with greater regularity and openness on Chinese television. Poor educational facilities, faulty construction work, ecological degradation, corrupt government officials – all now come under fire and have become common storylines in news and current affairs programmes, as well as documentaries. Heroes are often just ordinary people living ordinary lives.

The films that are featured in BBC World News’ China Reporting China season show the emergence in China of a new and increasingly popular trend in documentary film-making: the observational genre in which stories unfold naturally and images are allowed to speak for themselves.....


Continue reading (continúa en)....BBC World

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