About the event

'The Yunnan Project' New Cinema Series Group will arrive in London on 30 November 2009 to hold the Finding Shangri-La cultural exchange event at 18:00 in London’s Coronet cinema, a 400-seat traditional British movie theatre. This programme will include the London premiere of Finding Shangri-La, a film directed by one of the new generation of female directors, Ismene Ding from Taiwan; the Shangri-La Photo Exhibition; and live music from some of the top musicians in Yunnan Province. Guests from the Chinese and British film industries press, governments, business and cultural associations will be invited to witness the year’s most special showing of the mysterious and beautiful local culture that comes from China’s Yunnan Province.

About the film

- finding a spiritual home in the East

Director Ding Ismanne Ting| Producer Lola | 100min | Drama | 35mm | 2008

<Finding Shangri-La>is the third film in the Chinese New Cinema series, "The Yunnan Project". It describes a Taipei woman who loses her son in an accident, then goes to the Shangri-La area of Yunnan Province, where at last she finds a spiritual home. This mysterious, warm and charming story shows us an idealized East. Now, the world is in economic crisis, the movie <Finding Shangri-La> finds solace in Eastern philosophy. In the film, the western Tibetan area "Shangri-La" has become a symbol of quiet, peaceful and eternal. The head of the Chinese New Cinema series "The Yunnan Project," Lola is the producer of the film. "Taiwan's Performance Workshop’s" Stan Lai is the art director. Talented Taiwanese female director Ismene Ting is the director of the film. This film attracted a lot of interest at international film festivals. It won a ‘Special Award for photography’ at the Cairo International Film Festival, as well as the “Best Actress Award” in the Shanghai International Film Festival.

About the music band performance

- feel the power of originality in dance and song

As we know, Shangri-La is an area with many different ethnic groups and has a diverse culture and customs. There live Tibetan、Lisu、Han、Naxi、Yi、Bai、Hui – in all, 13 different groups. Their way of living, their costumes and architecture as well as their traditional wedding customs are each unique and the different groups have maintained their original characters. Our Tibetan Music Band is drawn from this background. This beautiful band consists of four talented members, from China’s Tibetan and Lusu people. They are good at singing and dancing and playing instruments. These four Shangri-La guys won the Grand Prix Silver prize at the 12th Young Singer National Competition held by China National TV. They also took part in the nationwide Song and Dance Poetry event in 2005 and have performed in Germany and Austria.

About the photo exhibition

- see captivating landscapes

The Shangri-La photo exhibition displays the mysterious culture of the Chinese Yunnan Region.
Shangri-La in Tibetan means “heart of sun and moon”, as does the Chinese pronunciation in English. This sound derives from the hinterland of the Tibetan Dialect of Shangri-La. It is a snow-peaked valley, with mysterious and magnificent temples, surrounded by quiet lakes, beautiful plains and animals of paradise. Shangri-La is also described as “Nirvana” and ”Fairland. The main motivation for bringing the Shangri-La Photo Exhibition to the UK is to show the beautiful natural scenery, culture, landscape and diverse customs of Shangri-La to a British audience, taking it on a unique and terrific Shangri-La cultural journey.

Production Team

Chief Producer: Lola

Lola has been a recognised name within China since the launch of her 'New Film Project for Young Chinese Directors' in 2001 and has since devoted her time to supporting young Chinese directors and helping them realise their ambitions. In 2005, Lola launched the 'Chinese New Cinema: the Yunnan Project' and has invited 10 female directors to join her. Since the time the project was started, many more talented filmmakers have joined this exciting endeavour. Not surprisingly, in 2006, Variety Magazine named Lola as one of China’s Twenty Most Influential Female media personalities.

Director: Ismene Ting

Renowned as a playwright, stage director and respected as one of the foremost actresses on the Chinese language stage, Ismene Ting’s (Nai Zhen Ting) film credits include a memorable performance as ‘Spring Flower’ in Stan Lai’s award-winning film The Peach Blossom Land. Her plays include Welcome to Shangri-La, a contemplative musical upon which Finding Shangri-La is loosely based, Come Dance with Me, and the farce, The Taxi Driver, the Gangster, the Dog, and their Two Wives, that was a hit both in Taiwan and China. She has also directed a stage version of Dario Fo’s Can’t Pay! Won’t Pay! Her stage performance credits include two decades of work with Performance Workshop (Biaoyan Gongzuofang) the Taipei-based group that is known as the leading creative theatre company in the Chinese world. As part of the nucleus of that company, Ting has been an integral force in the creation of cutting edge theatre pieces like Journey to the West, Red Sky, Open the Door Sir, I Me He Him, Mumble Jumble and A Dream Like a Dream. She has also been featured on stage with Hong Kong star Daniel Wu in The Happy Prince, and played the role of Eileen Chang in Hong Kong and Taipei in the acclaimed work Please Leave a Message, Eileen Chang. Her TV credits include the lead role in the SitCom Both Families are Human. Finding Shangri-La is Ismene Ting’s first feature film.

Renowned as an award-winning filmmaker as well as ‘Asia’s top theatre director’ (Asiaweek), Lai is a towering figure in the Chinese creative landscape. His Secret Love In Peach Blossom Land has been called by the New York Times 'the most popular play in contemporary China.'

Star Zhu Zhiying

Discovered by Stan Lai for a leading role in his epic stage production A Dream Like a Dream, Zhu Zhiying was subsequently noticed by Ang Lee and cast in the supporting role of Lai Xiujing in Lust, Caution. Zhiying received her B.F.A. in Acting from Taipei National University of the Arts’ Theater Department, where she performed leading roles in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and White Thief, Black Night. The role of Ji Ling in Finding Shangri-La is the first leading film role for this up-and-coming star.

Film Work
The Touch of Fate (2006)
The Fatality (2007)

About the Yunnan Project

Chinese New Cinema: the Yunnan Project series aims to provide an exciting platform from which Chinese filmmakers can explore their creative potential and their talent. The project is led by Lola, already well known for launching the New Film Project for Chinese Young Directors, and is supported by 10 internationally- recognised female filmmakers from the Chinese Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong. These 10 young directors will each lead the production of one film at a different location within Yunnan province. The films are all in 35mm format and the average running time is 90min. So far, three feature films have been completed: <The Park>, <The Case>, and <Finding Shangri-La>. The other seven are in development. Now, the new film <Very Chinese> directed by Xiaojiang is being prepared. It is a commercial comedy.
KEY WORD: Young Directors
The 10 Female directors of Chinese New Cinema come from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. It’s the first project gathering together new female film directors in China, and it’s the first project to create a classic movie brand of 10 films.
KEY WORD: National cinemas
The 10 feature films of "Yunnan project" will be shot in 10 typical locations throughout Yunnan province. Yunnan –the spiritual home of Chinese and Westerners, will be presented before the world. Shangri-la is a mysterious, warm, charming place in the East: it will lead us into a mysterious Yunnan. "Yunnan Project" as a national film brand, will encouage cultural exchanges with the rest of the world, and it will be a window on Yunnan and China to let the world know more about China.

About the Performance Workshop Films

Finding Shangri-La is the third production of Performance Workshop Films, which produced two highly acclaimed films in the ‘90s, The Peach Blossom Land and The Red Lotus Society, which won awards at the Tokyo, Berlin, and Singapore International Film Festivals, and were shown worldwide at other prominent festivals such as the New York, London and Toronto. The company is back into film production after many years and will continue to produce creative new films for the Chinese and world cinema.

About the Filmblog Media

FFE's new partner 'Filmblog Media' is one of the first production houses set up for the young directors of China. Filmblog Media seeks to explore and develop the new cinema of China with the energy of young talented creatives.  In 2006, with the support of the Yunnan provincial government, Filmblog Media has inaugurated the ‘Chinese New Cinema: the Yunnan Project’.  Through the relentless effort of Lola, the Chief Producer of the said project, 10 young female directors from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan got together to make 10 films in and about the mysterious Yunnan.  The first two of the projects, namely ‘The Case’ and ‘The Park’ have been completed and premiered in China in October, 2007. The third one ‘Finding Shangri-la’, a cross-strait (China/Taiwan) co-production, is now in post production.