Intl documentary film festival opens in Guangzhou

The 2017 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival (2017 GZDOC) opened at Guangzhou Library on Dec 12, with experts, professionals gathering to discuss developments in the documentary film industry.

It is the 15th time that the annual festival has been held in Guangzhou, becoming the only of its kind for documentary film investment, financing and copyright trading, as well as being a window for first-tier documentary-related industrial information.

Early in October, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of China and the People's Government of Guangdong Province signed a memo to take advantage of the 2017 GZDOC and build an expo featuring 4K documentaries. Thus 4K documentaries have become a topic of great interest at this year's event with its own exhibition area.

The 2017 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival opens in Guangzhou on Dec 12. [Photo provided by Organizing Committee of GZDOC 2017]

According to the organizers, more than 3,000 professionals from 31 countries will showcase 4,239 works at three-day event. A total of 39 works will compete against each other for the Golden Kapok Award, a special award created by the organizing committee of GZDOC in 2012.

During the festival, eight other international documentary festivals including the Canadian International Documentary Festival, Cannes Film Festival and Sheffield International Documentary Festival will hold exhibitions and take part in screenings, presales and trading sessions.

As one of the events of the 2017 GZDOC, the Golden Kapok Documentary Film Screenings already started on Dec 2 and will run until Dec 17. More than 100 documentary films will be shown across 26 movie theaters in Guangzhou.

Some of this year's films include Notes on Blindness from the UK, Inner Me from Italy, Two Worlds from Poland, and Still Tomorrow from China.

For a complete film schedule and ticket booking, go to the official WeChat account GZDOC_Official and the website www.gzdoc.cn.

A special forum on 4K documentary creation and industrial trends is held during the 2017 GZDOC. [Photo provided by Organizing Committee of GZDOC 2017]