:: hu jintao, ziyi zhang, george bush

In honor of Chinese President Hu Jintao's offical visit to the U.S., National Geographic and the MPAA are co-presenting a Chinese Film Festival in Washington, DC.

Sixth generation film director Lu Chuan will be there for a special screening of KEKEXILI: MOUNTAIN PATROL. HIFF screened the film in Fall 2005; it's like BLACK HAWK DOWN...except with armed antelope game wardens in Tibet.

Ziyi Zhang, en route to serve on the jury at Cannes with Wong Kar-wai, will be on hand in D.C. for a screening of HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS. Zhang will also be promoting Chinese cinema in our nation's capitol. She told Channel News Asia, "If I had a chance to see President Bush, I think I would ask him the question, how many Chinese films have you seen?"

I wonder what President Bush's answer might be. I wonder.

Tim Kelly, the festival's organizer, goes on to make a great point in the same article: "There are about 10,000 feature films made outside of the US each year, but only about 20 of those get broad distribution here inside the United States." So perhaps we can let the President slide on this one.