China's film industry, which seldom covers the real disasters of the country, has completed its first documentary film on major disasters the country has witnessed since its New China was founded in 1949.

Time of Disasters, a documentary shot by The Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio of China (CNDFS), takes the outbreak of SARS in Beijing, capital of China, in the spring of 2003 as its main thread and the point to start the story.

Moreover, it interwove the fight of the Chinese people against the horrible epidemic disease with the major disasters which had occurred in China since 1949.

These include the spread of Schistosomiasis in the early days of the 1950's, the natural disasters from 1959-1961 which impoverished the country, the giant earthquake in Tangshan City, north China's Hebei Province in 1976 which killed some 270,000 people, the conflagration in the Dahinggan Mountains in 1987 which destroyed over one million hectares of forestry, and one of the worst floods to ever hit China in 1998 which cost China dozens of billions of dollars.

"It's the common achievements of nearly 200 movie cameramen of the CNDFS after half a century of continuous tracking shooting," said Wang Meibiao, editor and director of the documentary film.

"How humankind faces disasters is a common topic for the world. The aim of the film is to show the world how the Chinese people, as human beings, acted and how their mental state was when faced with various disasters," said Wang.

"In the past, we did not dare to have a film like this to show to people, for fear that such miserable scenes will have a negative effect around the country," said Fan Houqin. The 83-year-old man had shot the part of the film on when the Schistosomiasis hit China more than 50 years ago.

"And that's not to say such a concentration of all those disasters. Even ordinary media like newspapers and magazines seldom dare to make such a report," said Fan.

"But after watching the film, I was deeply moved and greatly inspired," said Fan

"That's because when exhibiting the true damages done by the disasters to the audience, the film emphasizes the wisdom and courage of the people and the strength of unity when facing up to disasters," said Zhang Weixu, producer of the film.

As for the change of China's film industry from avoiding covering the theme of disasters to exhibiting disasters truly and objectively with documentary films, Zhang said, "It originated from the change of the general view of the whole society from the top officials to the common people to disasters since SARS," said Zhang.

"The greatest lesson of the SARS epidemic for the Chinese is when a disaster comes, the right way is to face it and to fight with a scientific attitude, not to hide it and avoid talking about it," said Zhang.

"While the Chinese government is engaged in designing measures to prevent and control various disasters and accidents, the showing of the film will give warnings and illumination to the whole society," said Shan Chunchang, counselor of the State Council who is also deputy director of the emergency response planning team of the General Office of the State Council.

With a low cost of only 2.7 million yuan (US$325,300), the film started shooting in May 2003, the peak time of the SARS spread in China and finished in January 2004.

According to Zhang, the film also was going to be sold to the overseas market.
 
(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2004)