What gives Chinese movies their special character? One of the world's best known cinematographers, Chris Doyle, thinks they are a reflection of the energy of the places where they are produced.

Australian-born Doyle, who speaks Mandarin and whose films include Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love and Hero, said it's the people and buzz of places like Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing that give Chinese films their special flavor.

He told China Daily in an interview in conjunction with the launch of A Century of Chinese Cinema, the flagship program of the Toronto International Film Festival, that foreigners could sometimes see things insiders could not see because of their subjectivity and personal involvement.

Doyle said he lived for a long time in Hong Kong and got to know the energy of the people and the way they live. He pointed to the tremendous amount of energy in Jackie Chan's movies as a reflection of how the actor expresses himself. "Looking from outside and feeling from inside is what artists should be doing in films," he said.

A Century of Chinese Cinema features a major film retrospective of more than 80 titles, sessions with well-known figures from the Chinese film industry, and an exhibition featuring two internationally acclaimed visual artists.

The films, several of which have never before been seen in North America, trace the shared cultural and historical connections between the cinemas of the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan and offer a range of cinematic options for all tastes.

One of the highlights of the festival is that it provides filmmakers from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong the chance to get together and explore their common interests and needs and to communicate and start to break down socio-political barriers.

Lightbox artistic director Noah Cowan told China Daily that the festival felt blessed being able to unite the various Chinese films from the last century, where a region shared cultural traditions worth celebrating.

Cowan feels the history, legacy and trajectory of Chinese film has been underrepresented in the global cinematic story, and as a leader in creative and cultural discovery through film, the Toronto film festival is the perfect setting for a retrospective of the genre.

"We put the cinemas together and see one of the world's great cinemas standing shoulder to shoulder with US, Italy and France and other great film nations like Japan, India and Brazil," Cowan said.

"With Chinese cinema in the international spotlight, an examination of the history and development of the region's amazing artistic output is long overdue. The unprecedented scale and depth of this program should help make up for that lost time."

Screenings will include Fei Mu's beloved 1948 masterpiece Spring in a Small Town, The Arch by Cecile Tang and Lau Kar-leung's The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, considered by many to be the best martial arts film ever made.

"We want to make sure we're giving as strong and historical a program as possible showing lots of films," Cowan said. "Also, in addition to the films, we want to provide contacts and some contemporary commentaries on extraordinary traditions to create a new artwork on this occasion."

"A Century of Chinese Cinema exemplifies TIFF's vision to foster new relationships and build bridges of cultural exchange," said Piers Handling, director and CEO of TIFF. "If we are, indeed, living in the Chinese Century, it is essential that we attempt to understand what that entails. There is no better way to do so than through film, which encourages cross-cultural understanding in our city and beyond."

A Century of Chinese Cinema is made possible with support from the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Toronto. The Hong Kong section of the program is supported by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office. Several screenings are in partnership with the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival. The program's roundtables and talks are co-presented by the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada's National Conversation on Asia.

renali@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 06/14/2013 page14)