Roads in this impoverished region are far from perfect and some villages are onlyaccessible on horseback.
“One village takes about two, three hours to walk to and it’s very dangerous whenwe make the journey back in the middle of the night,” said Xie. “After one screeningthere, it started to rain really heavily, which made carrying the equipment back even moretreacherous.”
Projectionists receive subsidies from the central and provincial governments for eachscreening and, in coastal provinces like Guangdong and Fujian, some can earn about 1,200yuan (178) a month.
Xie made 13,000 yuan after showing 200 movies in 2009. However, 3,000 yuan hadto be paid to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) for rental ofthe digital projector. “I earn less money than if I worked in a factory in Guangdong but Ithink screening films is a more stable job,” said Lin, who worked on 190 showings in 2009.
Broad selection
Most of the movies that are screened are about battles during the War of Resistanceagainst Japanese Aggression (1937-1945) or the reconstruction efforts following 1949.
Liu Wenliang, 76, who was at the Dongjiao school show, said he likes the filmsbecause they remind him of his youth. However, younger generations have morecontemporary tastes.
“The movies should be more diverse … so that efforts to enrich (villagers’) enjoymentwill be more fruitful,” said Zheng Fengtian, deputy dean of Renmin University of China’sschool of agricultural economics and rural development.
Central authorities have invested 700 billion yuan to improve infrastructure andliving standards in the countryside, especially in underdeveloped western regions, he said.
“But the government needs to pay just as much attention to people’s enjoyment,”
added Zheng. “Film is an art form villagers would want to watch no matter how manytelevision programs are available.”
He suggested projectionists show movies that are relevant to farmers, such as thoseabout agricultural and scientific developments that could help them harvest more.
“Our top priority is choosing movies farmers love,” explained Le Kexi, generalmanager of China New Rural Film Screening, a company that manages film distributionsin villages for China Film Group.
He said he plans to show Aftershock - director Feng Xiaogang’s latest release aboutthe 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, Hebei province - in villages once it closes in cities atthe end of September 2010.
Screening firms are also looking into improving conditions for patrons. As mostmovies are shown outside at night, weather conditions play an important role andperformances are often cancelled when it rains or is too cold. “We’re working on givinglocals a better experience,” said Le. “There are plans to shift our operations to indoorvenues.”
History of plot twists
The first batch of mobile cinemas was set up in 1950, when 1,817 projectionists weretrained in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, according to the National Film Museum in Beijing.
They were an instant hit.
“It was like a gala in the 1970s and 1980s,” said Wang Guangqian, general managerof Qiandongnan Film Screening Corporation. “Projectionists were extremely popular andpeople would even come to help us carry the equipment.”
However, by the 1990s, that popularity was fading, largely due to the growing accessto television, and many projectionists were forced to find alternative jobs in cities.
“The 1990s were really tough for me,” said Xie, who started his career after graduatingfrom middle school in 1983, the year before the industry hit a peak with 120,000 mobilecinemas. “It was the smiles on the people’s faces that kept me going. That’s why I stayed inthe business.”
In 1998, the Ministry of Culture and the SARFT jointly launched the 2131 Program,which was aimed at enabling more rural residents to watch movies. Between 2001 and2005, village screenings attracted a total audience of more than 5 billion.
More than 80,000 projectionists hosted 7.7 million screenings in remote and underdevelopedregions in 2009, according to China New Rural Film Screening. On average,mobile cinemas visit villages at least once a month.
However, despite an investment of 770 million yuan by the central government in2009, mobile cinemas are still facing a shortage in funds, cinema managers complained.
The SARFT already pays a subsidy of 100 yuan for every showing, with 70 yuan goingto the projectionist, although officials are expected to double that in September 2010 atthe National Conference on Rural Film-screening in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province.
In Guizhou, mobile cinema workers received a joint subsidy from central andprovincial authorities of 87 yuan per film. The Qiandongnan prefecture is also expected tocontribute 13 yuan but has not done so since September 2009.
“The shortage in funds has hindered the development of mobile cinemas in theprefecture and reduced the income of projectionists,” said Yang Yilin, manager ofQiandongnan Film-screening Corporation.
Speaking in dialects
More than 80 percent of Qiandongnan’s 4.4 million population belong to ethnicgroups, with one-fifth ethnic Miao. Therefore, movies dubbed in the local dialects areextremely popular.
During a cinema screening in September 2010 in Tonggu, a village 30 km from theprefecture’s capital of Kaili, just 100 of its 2,000 residents turned out to watch the firstmovie, which was in Mandarin. Yet, another 400 rushed to join them for the start of themain feature, which was the box office hit Founding of a Republic dubbed in the Miaolanguage.
“It’s amazing to see the actors playing Chairman Mao (Zedong) and Chiang Kai-shektalking in Miao,” said villager Zhao Yuan’ou, 55. “I couldn’t believe it that the dubbedversion included lots of unique humor for Miao people.”