Documentary Film Project

Provisional Title
Baima Tibetans

A Brief Outline
Baima Tibet is one of an ethnic group officially classified as part of the Tibetan ethnic group by the Chinese administration, although they claim that they have different language and religion from Tibetans. Ironically, the Tibetans themselves do not consider them to be Tibetan. Under the Tibetan Autonomous Administration, Baima Tibetans are discriminated against and do not enjoy the privileged quotas offered to minority ethnic groups. As a sub-ethnic group, Baima Tibetans still live in the underdeveloped environment in the Northwest Sichuan province close to the panda’s homeland.
The population of the Baima group is about 10,000. Their villages often have the nickname “widow village”. This because most of village men have been imprisoned as heavy punishment for killing pandas. Lacking the modern concept of environmentalism in their pre-modern life style, Baima men continue to kill pandas after being released from jail, when attractive deals for panda fur are offered by urban Han people. As a result, they are sent to prison again.

Why we want to produce it?
Mr. Wang, a cinematographer of Mian Yang TV station, personally went to film the community life and take written research notes 10 years ago. These films and notes remained unedited and unpublished. Recently, Mr. Wang went to the remote community again with a Beijing TV production crew. He was shocked by the sharp changes in the village he had visited before. The Beijing TV program attempts to tell a story that the Baima Tibetan ethnic village people had been educated and civilized by a heroic Han panda-lover. Mr. Wang felt reluctant to provide his unedited materials for the Beijing TV program which held a completely different view from his own.
Therefore, Mr. Wang joined our team (see details below). With his unedited materials for comparison, we will go into the Baima villages to film our investigation of the change process over the last 10 years.

Documentary Production Team
This above-mentioned documentary film will be produced by Mianyang Cultural Center (MCC), a joint venture company constituted by Mianyang City Arts/Cultural Council and an Australian registered company. We have strong contacts with the local authorities, which can assist us to complete the production efficiently.

Adviser: Ms. Ann Hui (a well-known Hong Kong film director, who is also a documentary producer)

Director: Mr. Chris Chow (graduated from the department of film & TV production in USC; the winner of a short film competition in Hong Kong)

Field Site Interview &
Anthropologist Consultant: Dr. John Thorne (a specialist in Chinese minorities, who will conduct interviews in Mandarin and explain to the audience in English as the program host speaker)

Cinematography: Mr. Wang Jue (the camera man of Mianyang TV who offers his unedited materials on the topic)

Topic Consultant: Mr. Jiang Lan (a film maker and novelist who writes about the Baima Tibetans ethnic people)

Line Producer: Mianyang TV production staff (on sub-contractor basis)

Production Coordinator: Ms. Yeeshan Yang (a director of MCC and a writer, who is also an anthropology post-graduate student. Tel: 852-9084 4126; email: yeeshan2@netvigator.com)

Production Schedule
The production team members will be available during the period of July and August 2002. The fieldwork of investigating and filming will take about 4 weeks for preparation in Hong Kong and Mianyang, and another 4 weeks in the ethnic village sites, and 4 weeks of post-production.

Production Budget
The total budget of the above-mentioned production is estimated USD$80,000.-
MCC would like to seek financial assistance or investment for this production.
A further detailed proposal and break down budget would be provided when necessary.

Last updated: May 8, 2005