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China shuts down Beijing Independent Film Festival

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ANI Washington

Chinese authorities recently shut down an annual independent film festival in Beijing on its opening day and seized documents and films from organizers.

According to the Hollywood reporter, the festival tries to offer a platform for independent cinema, but for many months now, China's ruling Communist Party has been tightening the screws on dissenting views, including movies from outside the tightly monitored and heavily regulated Chinese film industry.

Li Xianting, a critic and one of the organizers of the Beijing Independent Film Festival said that police searched his office and confiscated materials he had collected over more than 10 years.

The crackdown was carried out after repeated warnings issued by the authorities directing the organizers to cancel the festival.

 

The police detained Li and the festival's artistic director,Wang Hongwei, Saturday night, but released them later, according to their supporters.

The report said that officials claiming to be villagers blocked access to the site, intimidating reporters trying to enter, and even broke a journalist's camera and confiscated his cellphone.

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First Published: Aug 24 2014 | 3:33 PM IST

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