Human Rights Watch accuses China of pressuring filmmakers to withdraw from IndieChina festival

New York: Human Rights Watch (HRW), a US-based advocacy group, has accused Chinese authorities of harassing several dozen Chinese film directors and producers, along with their families in China, to compel them to withdraw their films from the inaugural IndieChina Film Festival in New York City.

The rights body stated that on Thursday, the festival’s organiser, Zhu Riku, announced that the film festival, scheduled for November 8-15, had been “suspended.”

“The Chinese government reached around the globe to shut down a film festival in New York City. This latest act of transnational repression demonstrates the Chinese government’s aim to control what the world sees and learns about China,” said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at HRW.

According to the rights body, on November 1, the organisers issued an announcement on social media saying they had received messages from some film directors and producers and their families about Chinese government harassment. By November 4, more than two-thirds of participating films had cancelled their screenings.

The HRW mentioned that independent film festivals in China have faced intensifying crackdowns over the past decade. It added that the Chinese government’s tightening of ideological controls has resulted in the prosecution and imprisonment of several filmmakers and has caused many others to go into exile.

In 2014, the rights body said, a court sentenced Shen Yongping, a prominent Chinese filmmaker whose documentary about the constitution was critical of the government, to one year in prison for alleged “illegal business activity.”

Additionally, the HRW stated that in January 2025, a court sentenced Chinese documentary filmmaker Chen Pinlin, known as Plato, to three-and-a-half years in prison for allegedly “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after he made a documentary about the “white paper protests” during Covid-19 lockdowns in China.

In April, the authorities confiscated equipment and materials from Guo Zhenming, a Chinese artist, for filming Uyghur folk music in China’s Xinjiang region, where Uyghurs and other Muslims have experienced severe repression, and fined him 75,000 yuan (about US$10,550) for not providing his screenplay synopsis to relevant departments.

The rights body further said that in Hong Kong, the Chinese authorities have banned 13 films from being shown on “national security” grounds.

Expressing concern, the HRW alleged that the Chinese government’s transnational repression of the arts has not been limited to film, citing interference with an exhibition in Bangkok and censorship of artwork by Uyghur, Tibetan, and Hongkonger artists in August.

“Governments should confront Chinese officials about their increasing use of abusive actions across international borders. Film festivals and other art venues should band together with government support to counteract the Chinese government’s growing long arm to influence free expression abroad,” Uluyol added.

IANS