Illustration: Liu Xiangya/GT

Since the beginning of November, a wave of high-quality Chinese films such as Endless Journey and YOLO have been hitting cinemas across Latin America, coinciding with the rise of Chinese film festivals in the region. These films present a glimpse of contemporary China to Latin Americans, who are eagerly visiting the country to communicate with Chinese people, record local development and the essence of Chinese culture through their own cameras.

In a cinema in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as the image of the protagonist standing on the street freezes, the packed audience of 400 to 500 fell silent. It wasn't until the end credits started rolling that a wave of prolonged and enthusiastic applause erupted from the crowd.

This was the screening of Chinese film Endless Journey at the Chinese Cinema Festival, which has been running in Brazil since November 4. When sharing his feeling with local audiences after the screening, Chinese actor Zhang Yi, who plays the lead role in the movie, said that through the Brazilian audience's reactions, he could see while China and Brazil are geographically far apart, they are emotionally close.

"China can now produce nearly 1,000 films per year, and there are many excellent films. We hope that more Chinese stories can be shared with people in theaters around the world and that foreign friends will come to China to travel and learn about Chinese culture," Zhang noted at the event, according to China Film News.

In Lima, Peru, the Chinese Cinema Festival has also been holding events. The audiences at screenings have been touched by the "profound and moving" Chinese stories presented in the films, with many saying that in the future Peru and China should embrace more chances to collaborate on filmmaking.

Actually, in the past few years, a number of young Latin American filmmakers have come to places in China that are similar to their hometowns through some collaborative projects such as the Looking China Youth Film Project to understand and record the real China with their own eyes and cameras. 

The participants not only witnessed China's journey in overcoming poverty, preserving cultural heritage, and advancing modernization, but they also formed friendships with the Chinese people, experiencing warmth and hospitality that fostered a deep connection after transcending barriers of language, distance, and cultural differences during filming.

Davi Pina Barros, a student from the University of São Paulo, was stunned by the vitality of Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality when he first went to the city in 2018 as part of a Looking China film project hosted by Beijing Normal University.

"The city looks so alive, with young and elderly people living in such peaceful communities. They are the best memories I will take from here. They are so kind, so helpful and open, it seems that we have known each other for a long time. It does not matter if you do not understand what they say and vice-versa, you will be treated as everyone else with much love," the young filmmaker was quoted as saying in a press release sent to the Global Times by the Beijing Normal University.

Barros completed his documentary film titled The Stone Whisperer in Chongqing. The work is focused on a Chinese professor who has dedicated her life to the preservation and restoration of the Buddhist cave-statues of Dazu, which is an epitome of numerous Chinese cultural relics conservation workers.

Letícia Kamiguchi, also from the University of São Paulo, spent all of the shooting days in a small village, Longshui, in East China's Fujian Province. Through filming the documentary titled The Timeless Village, the filmmaker went deep into traditional Chinese family culture, which impressed the creator most.

As of 2024, the program has brought in 1,100 young people from 102 countries such as Brazil,Mexico and Columbia to make more than 1,000 outstanding short films that have won hundreds of international awards. The students and teachers at the University of São Paulo who took part in the film project along with other friendly personages from all walks of life in Brazil wrote to Chinese President Xi Jinping, thanking the Chinese government, enterprises and universities for their contributions to friendly China-Brazil exchanges. 

In his reply, President Xi said Brazilian friends are welcome to visit China more often and experience for themselves the myriad sights of Chinese modernization.

Being a unique art form, film has the ability to transcend language and regional barriers, helping audiences in both China and Latin America better understand each other's cultural features, Sun Jiashan, an associate researcher at the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Administration, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"Latin American audiences can experience the fusion of China's traditional and modern cultures through Chinese films, while Chinese viewers can learn about the diversity and uniqueness of Latin America through its films," he said.

Chinese audiences are also increasingly eager to experience high-quality films from Latin America. In 2024, the Beijing International Film Festival featured Brazil as its guest country. As part of the festivities, a Brazilian Film Week showcased four outstanding Brazilian films to Chinese moviegoers. 

During the forum for exchanges between Chinese and international filmmakers, representatives from the Beijing International Film Festival and the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival signed a memorandum of cooperation. They agreed to establish mechanisms to promote visits, discussions, and field researches, as well as to create a system for recommending films to one another, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

"We are all developing countries, so as we move toward modernization together, it is important to find ways to better utilize the literature and art of China and Latin America, which will help foster a connection between the people of both sides. We should engage with each other frequently - much like visiting relatives - so that we can enhance mutual understanding," Kang Zhen, a professor at the College of Arts and the vice president of Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. life@globaltimes.com.cn