中国·福州——热爱城市从热爱美食开始

The Second Maritime Silk Road Documentary Film Festival will kick off on March 14 in Fuzhou, Fujian province

25 outstanding documentary films from China and abroad will be shown

At the press conference for the Second Maritime Silk Road Documentary Film Festival on March 13, it was announced that the festival will be held in Fuzhou from March 14 to 16. The event will include a range of activities, such as film exhibition, project promotion, thematic discussions, and cultural research, with the goal of sharing insights and innovation achievements in documentary filmmaking, while exploring new opportunities for international collaboration in this field.

Guided by the spirit of the Silk Road—peace and cooperation, openness and inclusivity, mutual learning and mutual benefit—and using documentary films as a medium, the festival continues to promote the creation, exchange, and distribution of documentaries in countries and regions along the Belt and Road. It aims to establish an open, equal, and mutually beneficial platform for international cooperation and exchange in the film and television cultural industries.

Representatives from 11 international documentary festivals and exhibitions, along with over 600 distinguished directors, producers, and scholars from more than 15 countries and regions, will be invited to gather in Fuzhou. With an unprecedented scale, the event will serve as a platform for dynamic dialogue and exchange on documentaries across various fields. It will include four key sections.

Release and Signing of International Co-Production Projects. This festival will present the largest-ever showcase of recent China-foreign documentary collaborations, with 24 co-production projects making their debut. These projects involve partnerships between China and countries such as the United States, Egypt, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, and others, covering a wide range of topics including nature, history, culture, and science and technology. Furthermore, four international co-production agreements will be signed at the opening ceremony.

Proposal for Screening and Production. 25 outstanding China-foreign documentary films, including Dahomey, the winner of the Golden Bear at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, and Ms. Hu’s Garden, the winner of the Golden Goblet Award at the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival, will be screened, followed by the post-screening sharing. The topics will span innovative narratives of Generation Z (those born between 1995 and 2009, who have grown up seamlessly integrated into the digital age) as well as traditional cultural themes.

Masterclass and Dialogue on Documentary Filmmaking. Renowned Dutch producer Pieter van Huystee and acclaimed Chinese documentary director Zhang Tongdao, along with other experts, will share their insights on documentary filmmaking in masterclasses titled Documentaries: Unveiling the Netherlands’ Cultural DNA and The Power of Imagination: Documentaries Beyond Boundaries. Additionally, the festival will host a variety of events, including the Asian Documentary Roundtable, the International Corporate Film Distribution Seminar, and the “Fujian-made” Documentary Production Phenomenon Seminar, offering an in-depth exploration of the vast potential for international collaboration in the world of documentary filmmaking.

China-foreign Documentary Market. The festival will feature the first professional platform focused on the “Maritime Silk Road” cultural documentary exchange—the China-foreign Documentary Market. 20 international festivals and exhibitions, leading domestic documentary production and broadcasting organizations, Internet platforms, and domestic and international distribution units will be invited to promote it, to facilitate China-foreign collaboration in documentary filmmaking, discover works that seamlessly blend Eastern aesthetic expressions with global themes, and use documentary films as a medium to shape a vibrant global landscape that features cultural diversity and mutual learning among civilizations.

According to the information, starting from March 14, the China-foreign Documentary Market and the Project Promotion Session will take place at the Lin Congyi Former Residence in Sanfang Qixiang. Among the China-foreign co-produced documentary projects announced and signed during the festival, several works, including Letters from Guling and Looking for Prosper Marie Giquel, highlight the stories of Fuzhou’s historical exchanges and mutual learning with the world. During the event, 25 outstanding China-foreign documentaries will be screened at the Sanfang Qixiang branch of Zhongrui International Cinema.

Dong Yan, Deputy Director of the China Center for International Communication Development (CCICD), said that the festival, held in Fuzhou—a city with a thousand-year history of Maritime Silk Road culture—will once again witness the exchange and collision of international documentary films. It is hoped that through documentaries, serving an international language, the event will present a true, multi-dimensional, and comprehensive portrayal of China to the world. Working with international partners, the festival will focus on the theme “Documentary Films and Cross-Cultural Dialogue,” using the language of film to break down cultural barriers. It will promote the transition of high-quality content from “Made in China” to global distribution, injecting fresh cultural energy into the joint development of the “Belt and Road Initiative.”

Speaking about the new trends and challenges in documentary filmmaking in recent years, Paul Lewis, Director of the World Congress of Science & Factual Producers (WCSFP) and a founding member of its committee, noted that digital technological transformations, led by artificial intelligence, are rapidly reshaping the industry. In such times, events like the Maritime Silk Road Documentary Film Festival are crucial for bringing the industry together and sharing more compelling stories with global audiences.

This festival is hosted by the Information Office of Fujian Provincial People’s Government, the Foreign Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Fujian Province, Fujian Provincial Administration of Radio and Television, CCICD, Fujian Media Group, and the Fuzhou Municipal Government.

(Fuzhou Daily Reporter: Yan Xiao)