Cui Yongyuan sincerely believes his Rising Stars project will help raise Chinese cinema from the doldrums.
Chinese filmmaking may have come into its own with the s0-called "Fifth Generation" of directors such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, or younger filmmakers like Wang Xiaoshuai and Jia Zhangke, but recent years have seen few capable of replacing them.
To help combat this apparent lack of talent, television host-turned-activist Cui Yongyuan has established a project to nurture "Rising Star" directors, bringing eight respected filmmakers, including South Korea's Chang-dong Lee, Japan's Shunji Iwai and the US's Barry Morrow, to Beijing to hold master classes.
"Film has always been my dream. I started to paying personal visits and inviting filmmakers from all over the world three yeas ago," said an emotional Cui Yongyuan at the press conference. "It is purely non-profit: the initial donation of 7 million yuan was suddenly withdrawn by supporters weeks ago. I had to make calls to my friends: it took only five minutes to convince them to donate,"Cui claimed.
China is known for its increasing numbers of co-productions with other countries, yet its reputation hasn't maintained at anything like the same pace.
Cui admitted it wasn't easy persuading people to come to China. "Many [producers] have fooled overseas filmmakers before and didn't finish what they promised. When I approached some people, they didn't want to work with us because of this bad reputation. I want my project to be professional and honest. It is how we do it now," promised Cui.
100 young directors are to be initially selected for the Rising Stars project; 54 are already in place, while 46 remain to be chosen over the next few weeks. The majority are from the mainland, with a few Chinese residents living abroad.
Despite his hopes, Cui confessed to the Global Times that he didn't think too much of the chosen ones currently. "I don't know them well but, so far, I didn't see much passion in them. We really need passion to change this dull industry."
According to Cui, the 100 will be whittled down to 30, then 20, then 10. With all fees covered, this final 10 will get to work with – and be mentored by – eight masters. Hollywood producer E. Bennett Walsh (Kill Bill, The Kite Runner), for example, will select one Rising Star to work with him next spring on his new vehicle starring Will Smith.
"The technology is not so hard to learn, it's the concept we lack the most," Cui told the Global Times. He believes new concepts and a different way of thinking can benefit rising directors and Chinese filmmaking.
"The masters are all very wise but humble: that's what everyone could learn," Cui told a class of hopefuls. " I have received calls from celebrities and they want to take the class as well but asked for special treatment – they don't want to sit with regular people. How ridiculous! Please remember, privilege is worthless." His class of filmmakers, directors, writers and playwrights contained TV host and actress Jiang Xiaohan – sitting with the "ordinary" folk, just as Cui would have wanted.