Video PlayerClose
by Julia Pierrepont III
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- As the United States heads into its first month under President Joe Biden's administration, Hollywood's entertainment industry hopes that the United States and China could ease the strained bilateral ties and resume fluid exchanges between each other.
"We need a fluid and healthy economic exchange between our two countries which after all are the top-two film economies of the world," said Edward Noeltner, founder and president of Cinema Management Group (CMG).
"The free exchange of art and culture is hugely important for the peoples of our two countries to know, appreciate and respect each other," Noeltner told Xinhua in a recent interview.
CMG introduced "Loving Vincent," the world's first fully oil painted feature film to China in 2017, which won the "Best Animation Award" at the Shanghai International Film Festival.
Chinese audiences responded well to the unique, hand painted animated feature that chronicled the last days in the life of Vincent van Gogh.
"What a shame it would have been if Chinese audiences could not have seen 'Loving Vincent' and gained further insight into the mysterious life and death of the world-famous Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh, through the animation of over 100 of his most famous paintings," the CMG president said.
CMG has also brought Chinese animated features to the world market and used Chinese animation studios for American animated projects - options Noeltner does not want to see curtailed.
"We are very hopeful that the motion picture business between China and the U.S. will improve under the Biden administration," he said.
Omar Kaczmarczyk, a film industry maven who originated the concept of segmented rights sales for motion pictures that is now the industry standard, felt that the U.S.-China relationship was essential and would only improve with time.
The former U.S. administration "tried to reduce our entire country's relationship with China," he said. "But U.S.-China relationship is too strong for that."
Kaczmarczyk told Xinhua that both nations could look to the film industry to help move it forward, since "movies are a special medicine that can bring the peoples of the world together."
In Southern California, since the entertainment industry is a pillar to local economy and employment, officials also welcome the U.S. rapprochement with China despite the former administration's four-year disruption.
"We can't change the world and solve the real problems, like the pandemic, hunger, poverty, obesity, environmental sustainability and others, unless the U.S. and China do it together," said Samuel Kang, a councilman of Duarte, a city located 30 km east of downtown Los Angeles.
He said the two countries' people have a duty as fellow human beings to "share our beautiful, unique planet in harmony."
"There is nothing like us anywhere else in the universe - yet we fight among ourselves. We can cure that with laughter, dreams - and motion pictures," he said. "If we simply care for each other and let ourselves evolve, we'd see what wonderful things would happen." Enditem