Cannes Film Festival: Chinese film industry evolution embodied by ‘sixth generation’ directors Jia Zhangke and Zhang Ming
Jia and Zhang couldn’t have had more different careers. Both started in independent cinema, before travelling down separate roads. Now both have films screening at the prestigious French festival
This year’s Cannes Film Festival will bring together two veterans from China’s so-called sixth generation of filmmakers – a group of mostly independent directors who made their mark on cinema after 1989. Films by Jia Zhangke and Zhang Ming – whose gritty, independently produced works transformed Chinese cinema in the 1990s – will show at the festival that opens today on the French Riviera.
While the pair represent Chinese cinema, their profiles could not be more different.
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In the other corner is Zhang, a 56-year-old film school professor who spent years working on government commissions and domestic TV shows after struggling to get his own projects off the ground.
Despite their wildly contrasting careers, they’ve bothnavigated and adapted to China’s evolving film industry over the past two decades.